If you wish to participate in this worthwhile endeavor, please follow
the instructions in the message below.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Bohman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2001 4:22 PM
Subject: accessibility makeovers


One of the concerns that Web developers often have is that they think
that
accessible web pages are boring or ugly. To disprove this myth, I am
doing
"accessibility makeovers" of some of the more popular sites on the Web.
I
decided to start with Barnes and Noble's Web site, because it was very
inaccessible to screen readers, and the fixes were relatively easy.

You can see the "before" and "after" version of the Barnes and Noble
home
page by visiting www.webaim.org/makeovers.

I would like to do other sites, such as CNN, ESPN, etc, which are
usually
quite graphical and which fit the prevailing notion of "attractiveness"
in a
Web page. I'd like to have as many examples as possible, in fact. That's
one
of the reasons why I'm writing this email.

Invitation to contribute:

I invite anybody who is interested to do a web page makeover of a
popular
web site (just one page, e.g. the home page) so that it can be posted in
our
WebAIM makeover "hall of fame." Your reward will be full recognition of
your
efforts (the makeover will be posted on the web along with an
acknowledgement of your efforts), the satisfaction of contributing to
the
education of webmasters everywhere . . . but, alas, there will be no
monetary remuneration.

The idea is to document the changes that you made to the page, and to
provide a concrete example for other web developers to emulate. There
are
plenty examples of inaccessible design. I'm trying to put together a
collection of good, accessible designs that are neither boring nor ugly.

If you'd like to participate, contact me for more info
([log in to unmask]),
or just send me the before and after versions of the page along with a
description of the changes that you made.

Thanks so much!

Paul Bohman
Technology Coordinator
Web Accessibility in Mind (www.webaim.org)
at the Center for Persons with Disabilities (www.cpd.usu.edu)
at Utah State University (www.usu.edu)


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