aloha, y'all!
as one of the subjects of the article, i have mixed feelings about the
utility of such quote exposes unquote... i wasn't so much put off by the
naivete of the article, but by the fact that the article was obviously
not going to be taken to heart by the powers that be at _wired_... for
_wired_ to have published this particular article in an unfriendly site is
as hypocritical as an editor or publisher of a magazine that takes an
aggressive stance on affirmative action belonging to a country club that
doesn't admit african-american members...
in any event, i felt it was necessary to register my displeasure with the
state of their site vis a vis access... (although i must say that i would
have also have preferred the reporter using a tape recorder to record my
comments rather than a notepad, as none of the quotes attributed to me
were reproduced verbatim, nor were all of them entirely intelligible as
reproduced in the news item... it is also a sad sign that no one bothered
to check the articles' URLs very carefully, as the hyperlink to ACB points
to AFB...
call me sensitive, call me cynical, call me stupid for biting a hand that
has the potential to feed me the choicest scraps... but whatever you call
me, make sure i can get to the damn page to make sure you spelled my name
correctly!
the following is a copy of an emessage that i sent to the staff at
www.wired.com
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 1997 22:55:17 -0400 (EDT)
From: "gregory j. rosmaita" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
[log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
[log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The Blind Leading The Blinkered
aloha!
while i applaud your exposition of the challenges that confront blind
cybernauts, without incorporating such basic access features as ALT-tags
into your site, the story can only be classified as mere conscience-satiating
window dressing...
i am not asking you to radically redesign your site... nor am i asking
you to maintain a "text-only" version of your site, as i have no desire to
be shunted into a cyberghetto... what i am asking is that you incorporate
the pre-existing accessibility features of HTML into http://www.wired.com
(consult either http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Disabilities/ or
http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/lynx.html#atp for more information on
accessibility in theory and practice)
and, while i have every confidence in the competence of the webmasters at
wired to effect access, i would like to make one suggestion... while you
might consider using null ALT arguments to blank out most of the purely
decorative elements at your site, as they can distract far more than they
inform, it is imperative that you use clear, concise, descriptive, and
meaningful ALT arguments whenever a graphic is defined as a hyperlink
at www.wired.com...
while it is possible to negotiate un-alt-texted links using a text-based
browser (using, i might add, educated guesswork: that is, basing one's
decision whether or not to follow the link based on the filename contained
in the URL--which is not only a tricky proposition, given the uninformative
nature of so many filenames, but an unproductive and unwelcome waste of one's
time) had i been using a graphical browser, in conjunction with a
windows-based screen-reader, without alt-text, i would not have even known
that the graphically defined hyperlinks existed... why? because, as i
explained to austin bunn, when it comes to graphics and icons, a screen-reader
is a lot like a blind person--it is incapable of knowing what the graphic
is, unless the content of the graphic is defined for it...
here is the full analogy to which austin alluded in the article: as
someone who is totally blind, i can walk into a room, tell you that it has
four walls, and that each wall is plastered, but unless someone tells me
that one of the walls is adorned with a fresco, i have no way of knowing
that the fresco exists, much less what it portrays...
now, picture yourself in that same room, plunged into impenetrable darkness...
after a thorough tactile examination of the walls, you have discovered that
the room has neither doors nor windows... unbeknownst to you, however,
there is, within the room, a holographic trigger which enables instant
egress from the room... yet, in the complete absence of light, or,
rather, without recourse to your sight, how are you to discover the trigger?
and even if you have been told that you need to find it, how could you,
unless the holographic trigger was marked by some sort of aural clue?
an extreme analogy? no: a daily reality for the hundreds of thousands of
blind and visually impaired cybernauts world wide who are routinely
reduced to roadkill on the information superhighway... again you accuse
me of exaggeration? turn off your monitor, unplug your mouse, and try to
surf http://www.sony.com
HTML was intended as an expeditious, platform-independent means of
efficiently organizing, indexing, and presenting information, not as a
virtual desktop publishing medium... i and millions of others like me,
who--for whatever reason, physical, financial, or philosophical--either
prefer to, or have no choice but to, access the web via a text-based
browser, eagerly await the wider implementation of the W3C's CSS and ACSS
initiatives (consult: Web Style Sheets [URL http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Style/],
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) [URL http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Style/css/],
and Aural Cascading Style Sheets (ACSS) [URL
http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Style/css/Speech/NOTE-ACSS"]), both of which
are means of ensuring a more accessible and hardware-independent web...
sincerely,
gregory j. rosmaita, webmaster
The BLINUX DDP http://leb.net/blinux/
BLYNX http://leb.net/blinux/blynx/
CALDWELL COLLEGE http://www.caldwell.edu
CAMERA OBSCURA http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/
READ 'EM AND SPEAK http://www.njin.net/caldwell/books/
VICUG-NYC http://www.njin.net/caldwell/vicug/
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CYNIC, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not
as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of plucking out
a cynic's eyes to improve his vision.
Ambrose Bierce, _The Devil's Dictionary_
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