On 4/21/05, designer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The attitude that says 'visually impaired people don't matter because it > isn't for them' may sound insular, but it isn't. It's merely a matter of > fact. The evangelists of the 'everything in the world must be accessible to > all' camp are striving for the impossible. The logical extension of this > extreme attitude is that all art galleries should close down because the > totally blind can't see anything in there, and all music should be > unavailable because the totally deaf can't hear it, and . . . OK, you get > the point.
Of course everything can't be accessible to all. It's just not possible. What is possible is for there to be a level playing field, so that people can get access to stuff that is then varying levels of accessible to them. Taking the art gallery example: I, as a sighted person can walk into the Tate Modern gallery in London, see all the artwork there, and yet, find none of it accessible, because I just don't "get" it. A friend of mine, who has a serious sight problem can walk into that same gallery, stand in front of the same pieces of artwork I did, and that same artwork that I don't "get" is accessible to him. Does he experience it in the same way that I do (i.e., through the visual medium)? Nope. Does that mean that he shouldn't have bothered going to the gallery because he can't see it? Nope. Extending that to the web. I dabble in photography. I really enjoy it, and enjoy the feedback that I get when people look at my photos. I want to put my photos up on line. They're very visual, and frequently, very abstract. I'm passionate about accessibility. I want my friends with sight problems to be able to experience my photos too, even if they can't necessarily get the same level of experience visually as others will. Describing exactly what the subject won't necessarily make my photo accessible. So I tell the story behind it. What made me take it, what I was feeling at the time, whatever I think will get across the same thing I'm trying to get across in the visual medium of the photograph. Because that way, I feel like someone can then either "get" or "not get" that photo on an equal level. Just because someone can't walk into a place, look round and immediately go "wow" doesn't mean that they can't get that "wow" factor from something else, like the feeling of space, or the fact that the flooring has been designed so they don't fall on their face going up stairs... and if you're showcasing your design skills online, why limit yourself to just the visual? Show off your design skills by designing in more than one dimension! Ok, I'm going to stop ranting and get back to work. pix http://www.pixeldiva.co.uk ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
