> Are the disabed really the main priority when it comes to web > standards?
Not exactly, they're just one of many groups that benefit. They happen to benefit quite a lot, of course.. :) Standards benefit pretty much everyone, whether they realise it or not. Standards compliant sites are generally (not always) more lightweight (faster for the user), easier to update, rank better in search engines etc. There's also the consideration of making your sites future-robust (I never say future *proof* :)). Stick to standards and you have a better chance that they'll still work in the next version of browser X. If nothing else, you - as in the developer - should be a priority for going with standards, since it'll be you doing updates and fixing bugs :) > Is there really that many disabled internet users? I would like to know. :) Well I've often said that search engines are blind, deaf, mobility impaired users with scripting and plugins turned off (http://weblog.200ok.com.au/2005/06/search-engine-optimisation-is-new.html). So there are a couple of disabled users like Google that you probably want to cater to in some way :) More directly on your question though, there's enough out there in America alone that Microsoft decided they could make money from them. M$ commissioned a study which showed 57% of all computer users are likely to benefit in some way from "accessible technology" (http://www.microsoft.com/enable/research/). Figures vary, but they generally show a significant number of either "disabled" or "people who benefit". With an ageing population in many countries, simple things like being able to resize text will become more important. cheers, h -- --- <http://www.200ok.com.au/> --- The future has arrived; it's just not --- evenly distributed. - William Gibson ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
