A few actual quotes from Berners-Lee: "Whatever the device you use for getting your information out, it should be the same information."
"The Mobile Web Initiative is important - information must be made seamlessly available on any device." "IT professionals have a responsibility to understand the use of standards and the importance of making Web applications that work with any kind of device." "Customers need to be given control of their own data - not being tied into a certain manufacturer so that when there are problems they are always obliged to go back to them." "The original idea of the Web was about supporting the way people already work socially, but this doesn't happen with a lot of IT projects." "The Semantic Web is not a separate Web but an extension of the current one, in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation." "There could still be a huge battle which leaves a big mess and fragments the Web into two pieces whenever a new feature comes along." "We could say we want the Web to reflect a vision of the world where everything is done democratically. To do that, we get computers to talk with each other in such a way as to promote that ideal." ... So I'd suggest that the vision of user empowerment and democratization was there rather early on, Andrei. I don;t think my interpretation was too far off the mark. What's the primary interaction to consider? Isn't it the user's interaction with information? The economies of scale disappear when we have to build an alternate presentation, so what's the problem with building a solid core from the start and offering enhancement as an option, rather than forcing people to opt out of javascript or Flash or anything else they perceive as superfluous? Should I endure a "rich" experience just because someone has decided that's better for me? I said earlier: >> People who use screen readers and other assistive technologies have no choice in the matter, so they aren't turning off scripts just to deny you your God-given right to deliver your brilliant Design. Get over that. The percentage of people who do that is actually quite small. < That's fine if you're planning for today, but I think the effort might be better spent planning for 20 years down the road. Age inevitably brings us disability if we survive our youth. That doesn't even touch on my desire to make things better right now for my grandmother who's nearly deaf, my aunt with mobility impairments due to multiple sclerosis, and many other people who have various impairments and appreciate the benefits of connectivity. Also, the percentage of people who give up because they don't know *how* to turn off javascript is undocumented. There's a lot that statistics don't tell us. As I recall, one actual statistic goes something like this: By age 65, more than half of us will have a disability that prevents us from working (regardless of our profession or trade). By age 80, more than 90 percent of us. That's from memory, but it's darned close. These statistics apply to the U.S., where longevity and health care are arguably better than some other countries. So you may look at current population and current technology usage and say "oh, it's *such* a small number of people, I think I'll disregard them," but that number will increase dramatically, and soon. In the next two decades, rates of vision loss from diseases like age-related macular degeneration are expected to double in the U.S. as 78 million baby boomers reach retirement age. Unlike their parents, those old folks (ahem ... *we*) will be very familiar with this technology and we'll want to use it. Already, an estimated 6.5 million Americans over age 65 are experiencing age-related vision loss. Screen readers are the mostly likely adaptation for them, if they seek web access, and screen readers as we know them today are easily flummoxed by javascript ... unless it's implemented with accessibility in mind from the start. That's what I advocate. I'm not saying anybody *must* do anything. I'm just saying it might be a really good idea to be ready for this, just as you grab an umbrella on the way out the door when the sky darkens. It might actually be a very good business decision to build accessibily. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=23821 ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
