So, You Don’t Have Any Disabled Users?
21times.org
So, You Don’t Have Any Disabled Users?
1–10 of 55 posts
Re: So, You Don’t Have Any Disabled Users?
#2Just like we have laws against discrimination based on disability and measures like handicap parking spots, does anyone envision a future where there's some sort of federal mandate that websites cater to the disabled?
Re: So, You Don’t Have Any Disabled Users?
#3Just like we have laws against discrimination based on disability and measures like handicap parking spots, does anyone envision a future where there's some sort of federal mandate that websites cater to the disabled?
You mean like Section 508? That already the law of the land for government agencies (and, generally speaking, their contractors)
Re: So, You Don’t Have Any Disabled Users?
#4Just like we have laws against discrimination based on disability and measures like handicap parking spots, does anyone envision a future where there's some sort of federal mandate that websites cater to the disabled?
When you say "we", I assume you mean the United States. There's already progress in that direction in other countries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_accessibility#Legally_requi...
It's already a de facto requirement for anyone selling software to the government. When I was a PM at Microsoft working on Visio, I was surprised and amazed at how much time and energy went into accessibility of all the Office product. It's not easy to make a visual design program like Visio work well for the blind or visually impaired!
Re: So, You Don’t Have Any Disabled Users?
#5Just like we have laws against discrimination based on disability and measures like handicap parking spots, does anyone envision a future where there's some sort of federal mandate that websites cater to the disabled?
At least in the US, this already falls under Section 508 guidelines [1]. Most government web sites are already expected to follow this.
I wouldn't call it "catering" though, because often it doesn't involve anything more than semantic markup and avoiding exclusively mouse-driven navigation.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_508_Amendment_to_the_Re...
Re: So, You Don’t Have Any Disabled Users?
#6"One of the newer groups under the accessibility umbrella, this group has become more vocal in the past few years. Those with dyslexia and ADD or ADHD have begun to press for a less busy Internet, one where ads don’t distract them to the point of being unable to use a site, or where proper contrast is used, rather than the more artistic combinations of light text against an only slightly lighter background."
IMO, browser makers failed us 15+ years ago by not making the ability to style/theme our sites more prominent as part of the UI. (and cookie management, but that's a different rant) The idea of using your own custom style sheets was always, at best, an extreme fringe feature. Yes, markup has to be 'right' for this to work, and browser makers catered to poor markup way too much in the early days. I'm not sure we can easily get out of it, but perhaps now... with a somewhat renewed focus on semantic markup and better CSS in browsers, we could encourage browsers to treat "user-specified" styling as a first class function of what it means to be a 'browser'?
Using Safari 5 right now, there's no option I can find to set a minimum font size. A 'default' font and size, yes, but that seems to be ignored or overwritten by every site I go to. It's 2012 and I still have to 'increase font size' on a number of sites I go to (and I know about keystrokes to do so - other people I know tend to just suffer with small fonts).
Re: So, You Don’t Have Any Disabled Users?
#7Just like we have laws against discrimination based on disability and measures like handicap parking spots, does anyone envision a future where there's some sort of federal mandate that websites cater to the disabled?
This may happen in bits and pieces. Online media companies are adding subtitles to their videos in response to a one-off FCC ruling:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/03/amazon-quietly-begins-the-l...
Changes to the law seem unlikely given the dysfunction in Congress now and in the foreseeable future. Hence, we may end up with a regulatory patchwork quilt made up of rulings like this one.
Re: So, You Don’t Have Any Disabled Users?
#8What about disabled employees? Do employee handbooks and HR materials have to be accessible to the visually impaired, for example?
Re: So, You Don’t Have Any Disabled Users?
#9What about disabled employees? Do employee handbooks and HR materials have to be accessible to the visually impaired, for example?
In my experience, HR departments for some companies do have this kind of material. However, the hiring processes for many places are inaccessible to people with certain kinds of disabilities, so they are not likely to even make it to interview stages of hiring.
Re: So, You Don’t Have Any Disabled Users?
#10Just like we have laws against discrimination based on disability and measures like handicap parking spots, does anyone envision a future where there's some sort of federal mandate that websites cater to the disabled?
When you say "we", I assume you mean the United States. There's already progress in that direction in other countries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_accessibility#Legally_requi... It's already a de facto requirement for anyone selling software to the government. When I was a PM at Microsoft working on Visio, I was surprised and amazed at how much time and energy went into accessibility of all the Office product. I…
Please say more about that.
I'm trying to think how a blind user could effectively use a visual design program or its output. Do you output text representation of diagrams? Does a blind user put the product to some use and purpose that's different from the average sighted user?