At 10:21 AM 11/16/2000 , Séverine Renard wrote: >Hi listers, > We are updating our website at work. That means making it pretty and full >of graphs and frames. It is going to be created using Dream Weaver. I would >like that we have an equivalent site that would be text only versions of >all the pages. There would be a button on the homepage that would say "With >graphics" - "Text only" and if the people choose text only, they would have >access to the same information as on each of the normal pages. > How can I do that? Where can I find information about it? > Thanks for your advice, > > Sincerely, > Severine Renard Hi, Severine: There are several issues to consider here. In many cases, you will find that web designers concerned about accessibility consciously choose to NOT have a text only page. The reasons for this are as follows: * The ability to embed accessibility/text browsing information into graphical web pages means that having two versions of the site is redundant. You can produce one site which is accessible via text and graphical browsers. For example, proper use of ALT text on images, testing your table layout, and trying out page designs in a non-graphical browser (such as Lynx) can produce a single version of the site which degrades gracefully. * Many text-only sites are actually not any more accessible to text browsers (and screenreaders) than a well-done, gracefully degrading graphical site. This is because often the people who are creating the text site don't understand the issues regarding web accessibility and don't realize what specifically they need to encode on a page in the HTML to produce _structured_ text. * The world doesn't divide cleanly into "graphical" and "text-only" needs as easily as we'd like; often you will find users who can benefit from graphics but who still need textual cues at times. For example, a user with low vision may increase the font size in her browser. If your navigation system is graphical, her font size won't increase and the only way she will be able to navigate will be by using the text-only version. However, she may still benefit from the layout, visual cues, and supplemental graphics found in the graphical version. * Text-only sites may be more inaccessible to certain user groups, such as those with cognitive disabilities; it's important to remember that there are different needs out there. Graphical vs. text-only is far too simple of a dichotomy to fit the real world. * There have been serious problems with text-only versions of web sites in the past, leading some in the visually impaired web design community to label them as "separate but inequal" interfaces -- in other words, a text-only site may not provide full functionality of the main site. The reasons for this are most often procedural and technical -- many webmasters will forget that the text-only site exists, and will update it far less frequently. In the absence of tools designed to keep the text-only version synchronized with the graphical version, the decision to provide a text-only site effectively means doubling the maintenance workload for the entire site. As you can see, there may be good reasons to not create a text-only site. With these in mind, I'll now tell you what you need to know about creating a text-only version of a site: * Whenever possible, use automated tools to generate and serve the text version of the site. If you are generating the main graphical site from database, then you are already way ahead of the game; it should be relatively easy to create a textual version. If you are not creating the site dynamically, then consider using Server Side Includes (a simple solution), PHP, or a content management system. * Ensure that your text-only site is up to date and contains all the content available in the graphical version of the site. Incorporate regular Q/A and testing of the text-only site into your existing site maintenance schedule. Acquire and use non-graphical browsers, such as Lynx, pwWebSpeak, or a graphical browser with a screenreader. * Make sure that your text-only site truly is more accessible than the graphical site; be sure to use valid, structured HTML, and provide a sensible non-graphical navigation scheme. Hope this helps. --Kynn -- Kynn Bartlett <[log in to unmask]> http://kynn.com/ Director of Accessibility, Edapta http://www.edapta.com/ Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain Internet http://www.idyllmtn.com/ AWARE Center Director http://www.awarecenter.org/ What's on my bookshelf? http://kynn.com/books/ VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List. To join or leave the list, send a message to [log in to unmask] In the body of the message, simply type "subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations. VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html