I second your recommendation.  Why on earth do navigation with javascript,
let alone javascript with no alternative like a site index?  If you can't
get the document with a guess about its directory hierarchy file name, you
are just stuck.  There is a very interesting site I just tried with the
same problem, http://www.oromotorsp.com, and many places are
inaccessible.  I may go back later with a graphical browser, but I have
little time and would just like to get the info right from my shell
account...

Vikki Stefans, pediatric physiatrist (rehab doc for kids), e-mail junkie,
working Mom of Sarah T. and Michael C., and wife of Henry "My Travel Agent",
Arkansas Children's Hospital/ U of A for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, aka
[log in to unmask] ...and EVERY mom is a working mom! (OK, dads too.)


On Sat, 7 Jul 2001, Martin McCormick wrote:

>         The company that runs the site had actually worked with a
> state agency for the blind in making their material accessible,
> but they essentially tuned their efforts to one and only one
> screen reader which happens to be the most expensive and
> technically complex screen reader there is.  What this means is
> that persons who are blind who want to use the site must buy
> Microsoft Windows right down to specific versions, the screen
> reader that things were optimized to, again, down to the specific
> version, and use Internet Explorer at a specific revision number.
> Stray outside the box anywhere along this path and things will start to break.
>
>         My impression from talking to the representative is that
> they absolutely and genuinely want to make it work.  They even
> went to the trouble to create a text version of their
> instructional material, even going so far as to create
> keyboard alternatives to actions that were originally only done
> by mouse.  What they failed to do was to do anything about the
> underlying use of javascript instead of absolute links in
> navigation.
>
>         This company also uses bobby to validate their pages and
> I think bobby should blow a whistle when javascript is used
> because the script is just as much a show stopper as misuse of
> frames and certain other elements.
>
>         No-script should be just another form of client-server
> interaction, not somebody's arbitrary idea of obsolete
> technology.  After all, wireless devices such as PDA's and
> web-enabled cell phones may not know javascript either.
>
>         We should sell the idea that no-script is an easy and
> cheap alternative when complex and expensive still doesn't work.