Re: [docbook] http://docbook.sourceforge.net/ problem

[Elliotte Harold <elharo@metalab.unc.edu>]

David Tolpin wrote:

> With accessibility for visually impaired, the situation is similar. One 
> is to make the design so simple that the
> only side that benefits is authors of bad screen readers. Another one is 
> to make screen readers understand
> JavaScript and provide alternative means for navigation. With the first 
> approach, the majority suffers, including
> the blinds: they can't access most sites, because not all sites are 
> careful enough to provide content for bad
> screen reading programs. With the second approach, everyone wins, 
> because it allows most people to access
> most sites in the most pleasant way, and boosts software development and 
> advances in information science.

I couldn't disagree more. Proper accessibility design improves sites for 
everyone, both sighted and not; and this is as true in web site design 
as everywhere else. Simpler sites work better. The only people who lose 
out by moving to simpler, JavaScript/Flash/Java free sites are the 
designer weenies who don't get to play with the latest cool toys and 
charge ten times as much for doing so.

-- 
Elliotte Rusty Harold  elharo@metalab.unc.edu
XML in a Nutshell 3rd Edition Just Published!
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