> While I fully accept the need to make sites accessible to the widest
> audience of people, where is the balance?

I doubt balance will ever be reached (where ever it may lie). Mainly due to
accessibility tools (i.e. screen readers, text browsers) constantly playing
catchup to technology. Doesn't mean we shouldn't try to achieve it though.



> For some people, making the site "accessible" may well mean using some of
> the techniques mentioned in James' post (ie. scrollable areas, etc. etc.).
>  Do we then sacrifice that "accessibility" for an alternative?  Do we look
> at doing two (or three or four or....) separate sites?

Just to clarify, my example *can* be made accessible by including the table
header in the data table (and fixing my shoddy markup). The scrolling effect is
pure CSS and can be switched off/ignored by just about every browser and
accessibility tool out there.

As for the "seperate sites" alternative, well, if you read through the
accessibility guidelines you'll find that its an acceptable practice but should
only be used as a last resort. Every effort should be made to make your existing
content accessible. Anything that cannot be (like using a custom OBJECT) need to
be (at the very least) linked to alternate, accessible content (i.e. a plain
text write up of what the object does and the information it contains).



> What aspects of Cold Fusion can help us to reduce the coding burden, but
> increase the "accessibilty" for everyone ?

Well, accessibility guidelines focus on the client end. Since CF is server
based, there really isn't a whole lot that applies. I guess things like using
<CFFORM> which creates all sorts of nasty javascript should probably be avoided
(or at least backed up with server side validation).

cheers,

_______________________
James Silva
Web Production
Gruden Pty Ltd

Tel:   +61 02 9956 6388
Fax:   +61 02 9956 8433
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web:   www.gruden.com
_______________________


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