"Stewart, Ron" writes:
>None of the vendors responded as far as I know. The decrease in
>accessibility was due to more of the databases going to only web based. Here
>are the highlights. These evaluations were done using Lynx and PwWebSpeak
>for baseline access. We have standardized on PwWebSpeak and Lynx as the
>minimum standard for accessibility.

        For those not sure about what lynx is or how it is used,
I want to say that the previous poster has an excellent idea.
Lynx is a text-only browser that was originally designed to allow
people who had slow modems, old terminals, or P.C.'s with only
monochrome text displays such as the old IBM P.C. with the MDA
to still be able to access web sites.  After all, cut through the
eye candy and you've still got words.

        Lynx is part of the open-source software movement and can
be gotten for free and run on several different platforms such as
UNIX/Linux, DOS, and even Windows.  I suggest that anybody
who wants to try this get a Linux system up and running and keep
it in the command-line mode while running lynx.  If you can use
a particular web site, a person who is blind may also be able to
make it work.  If you see links that you can't select or screen
after screen of generic tags that you can't get anything useful
out of, then you've got problems with that site.

        I was quite pleased to read the message that I have
partly quoted at the top because I have been suggesting this same
minimum test to lots of people, many in information technology,
and some act as if I just said that the little voices in my head
were calling me back to Neptune.

        Lynx tries to be about as standard and generic as it can
be since it is owned by nobody and designed to try to closely
follow the w3c or World Wide Web Consortium html coding
standards.

        Now, for a bit of philosophy which I promise to keep
short.

        The problems are _NOT_ as much technological as they are
strategic.  I bet most of these web-based card catalogs and data
bases could be made perfectly accessible this very day without
one line of java or javascript.  The problem is something that
gets different names depending upon which community is talking or
griping.  Computer folks refer to this as bloat, namely the
adding of flashy features that don't increase
the utility, but do increase the size and complexity beyond all
per portions.

        The military calls this "gold-plating" in which systems
are given expensive and complex upgrades to meet so many
eventualities that they end up costing a fortune and require
incredible amounts of maintenance.

        All the java does is to add a degree of uncertainty as to
whether or not this or that system will be able to work.  What is
needed is a set of hard and fast methods for communication
between remote clients and either piers or servers.  Text should
remain as text with font and attribute directives because this is
the easiest way to preserve the intelligence as long as
possible.

        It is that simple, no rocket science at all.  What
today's information technology environment really accentuates is
the need for good design and the utter folly of some of the
popular trends right now.  My bottom line is that this is never
going to get better if something fundamental does not change.  We
have had the technology for access for almost ten years, but one
has to arrange it to work in this way or it will never happen.

Martin McCormick 405 744-7572   Stillwater, OK
OSU Center for Computing and Information services Data Communications Group

Barrier-free Web Design Online Workshop
Workshop starts June 7, 2000
http://www.rit.edu/~easi/workshops/easiweb.htm