[LINK] Inaccessible web sites

[Ivan Trundle]

On 17/02/2010, at 8:29 AM, Tom Worthington wrote:

> Ivan Trundle wrote:
>> On 16/02/2010, at 8:32 AM, Tom Worthington wrote:
>>> It seems odd they would not provide a web page which residents of
>>> such villages would be able to read easily.
>> I doubt that many retirement village residents would have javascript
>> and flash turned off. Indeed, I wouldn't imagine that any would go to
>> such lengths. ...
> 
> Retirement village residents are likely to be older and therefore have
> poorer eyesight and well as other difficulties with viewing web pages.

I don't disagree (retirement village residents likely to be _younger_?), and I'm the last person to rise to the defence of Flash. I've spent too long working in an organisation that champions access to the internet by all, including disadvantaged groups.

I was simply stating that the average user (including retirement village people, and I know a few: though not one myself just yet) doesn't even understand the term javascript, or Flash.

As for creating a page that <category X> people can/cannot read: this is primarily a design and communication issue. If a site can't reach their intended audience, it fails. Either the audience complains/revolts/grumbles, or it vacates the site altogether.

I use the Telstra mobile phone billing page as a perfect example: I refuse to accept online billing and metering system until their website can deliver the same level of clarity as their paper product or the iPhone app that a third party has developed. It no longer matters to me that they can't make a site that I can comfortably use, even though I am literate, able, sighted and a veteran internet user.

Another example is the 40 million iPhone/iPod touch users who cannot view Flash at all: either the site designer makes a site that detects their browser and delivers, or the site is shunned. Adobe tried to demonstrate to the public that 85% of the top 100 sites required Flash, yet failed to mention that almost all of them all offer non-Flash alternatives (which demonstrates that site designers will shift to where the market is, not that people will shift to what sites offer).

But it's highly unlikely that Flash, javascript or any other enhancement to the web is going to go away, and the average user will have all these things turned on, not off. And designers will continue to make sites that are impossible to read on a particular platform, or with a particular browser, or for a particular user.

Despite what we might say here and to our respective audiences.

iT