The BBC have an article, which has a ‘quick’ look at accessibility on the web, I mean a quick look, it really just covers a blind member of staff trying to buy a book, and then some comments on the latest laws for the UK (following years on from the American 508 laws).
I should not be too dismissive, it is nice to see article which highlight the area of accessibility for the web on high profile sites such as the BBC, rather then just on sites related to web development, it is an area we all need to discuss, as users of the web, not just as developers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/6090418.stm
It is a bit unsettling that the one designer they quote, referred to CSS as being only around for a short time
“However, that’s quite a new technology, it’s only been around a couple of years, and a lot of designers are still very wary of using it. “
My definition of a couple would be 2, 3 at the outside, I have been using CSS since 1999, so I make that a little longer the a couple of years.
Again, I may be being a little harsh here, maybe they are refering to CSS2, and the take up of CSS for layout, as apposed to just changing the odd colour of font size.
Still CSS has been around some time, and whilst I understand a number of designers/developers find the fact that browsers interprute CSS different so frustrating, and fall back to tables, many designers and developers have taken to CSS as a layout tool, and gone on to live meaningful lives ;o)
Hopefully Web Accessibility will become more of a talking point for the long term, rather then odd points made every few months, although I expect until all browser makers work to Web standards (yes IE we are looking at you), many web designers/developers will find it hard to change, so maybe it is time action groups focused their attention at the browser makers.
Internet Explorer 7 is a major leap forward, amazing what years and years and years of redesign and one of the largest R&D budgets can do for you, after all not like Firefox was doing this without any major backing and a lot earlier, is it ;o)
If we focused some of the attention on the browser companies as well as the web site makers, maybe things would change even quicker, after all as designers/developers we are restricted by the performance of the device people use to view our creations, and for the (unfortunate) majority that is Internet Explorer, which even in its best version yet (IE 7) still has some way to go before it supports Web Standards fully.
One day, my friends, all browsers will work to web standards, one design will work, no hacks, no messing around trying to make up for the mess IE makes of the design which works fine in the standard’s browsers of Firefox and Opera (even Apple’s own Safari is doing far better the IE).
Then, and maybe only then, designers and developers will abandon the use of tables for layout, and will truly separate Content from Design, developing sites which can be created once, and viewed on many devices.
Posted by Carl Grint 
Posted by Carl Grint 
Posted by Carl Grint 