Any thoughts?

Peter Altschul

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>Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 12:29:05 -0500 (EST)
>From: "Sarah J. Blake" <[log in to unmask]>
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>To: Undisclosed recipients:  ;
>Subject: halfway off topic question
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>+== acb-l Message from "Sarah J. Blake" <[log in to unmask]> ==+
>Hi, all.
>
>This is sort of off-topic, but in a round-about way I think it's not.  I
>want to know what you think.
>
>A few weeks ago I was accepted as a phenomenal woman of the Web.  I was
>really excited.  I found that they were going to be starting a Web
>magazine sort of thing and applied to write a feature.  I was chosen to
>write a feature on parenting a child with a visual impairment based on
>content of my site.  Today I went to the guidelines and discovered that
>the site for the magazine would be using frames.  I wrote a note asking if
>a text version would be available and stating that if not, I would have to
>decline the offer to write as accessibility is a very high-priority issue
>for me.  I got a note back stating that if users wished to view the site
>without frames they could disable images.  I was told that it was
>narrow-minded to decline because a small portion of the population would
>not be able to read it and thanks anyway.
>
>Is it wrong for me to think this is callous and totally insensitive, even
>very poor Web design?  Is it narrow-minded for me to decline?  I wrote a
>note back about how some people don't have the option of turning off
>images because the text-based browser doesn't display them in the first
>place, that most frames-based sites appear to me as a blank screen, etc.
>Am I wasting my time?  And is it overreacting to consider withdrawing from
>PWOTW based on this kind of attitude?  To me this is blatant
>discrimination, to expect the disabled to adapt to the norm which is by
>default inaccessible.  Please give me input.  I am not normally the kind
>of person to act hastily, but this is just so very offensive to me!  I
>spend a lot of time helping people make their sites accessible.  It seems
>totally contradictory to contribute or be associated with something that
>prides itself on visual aspects to the exclusion of disabled users.
>
>
>Sarah J. Blake: mailto:[log in to unmask]
>Web site: http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/9641
>BA expected someday in psychology with special ed minor
>Administrator of several mailing lists
>Currently researching retinopathy of prematurity and the psychosocial
>effects of congenital blindness
>
>
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