> Jeffrey Veen caused a big debate by loudly proclaiming "I don't care about > accessibility" - and he's right. If you code nice html, you don't need to > care.
While there is some truth in this, I'd be hesitant to make such a strong statement. Jeffrey Veen was trying to make the point that using valid, semantically correct and CSS-based code will take you a long way towards accessibility. If you follow those basic principles many points on the WAI priority checklist are addressed. However, depending on your definition of 'nice code', there are still specific accessibility issues that fall outside straight coding, that need to be addressed such as: - Scaleable content for vision impaired - Colour contrasts for colour deficient users - Use of colour for critical info - Responsiveness for dropdown menus etc - Visible Skip menus for motor skill impaired users (and blind users) - Accessible tables (table summaries, captions, id's and headers for etc) - Accessible forms (fieldsets, legends, labels etc) - Descriptive links for blind users To name a few... To get back to Taco's original question - "Are there currently any laws in Australia that dictate a website should be accessible to vision impaired people" At the big September event - Web Essentials 04 - one of our presenters on Day 1 will be Bruce McGuire (the blind user who successfully sued SOCOG) who many would consider to be the best source of information on accessibility laws in Australia. In fact, this topic is what Bruce will be talking about in detail during his presentation. An essential presentation to attend for any Government web developer. Russ
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