>
> Website:                www.museumsworld.com
>

A quick examination of this website shows that it was made with MS FrontPage
98, not normally the tool of knowledgable web designers. It has all the
hallmarks: an imagemap used for a simple image link, empty HTML tags and the
dread "fphover.class" button. Parts of it don't work in Netscape 4.7,
including the javascript rollovers (coded using Adobe ImageReady,
apparently) and the "News Archive" button which is invisible.

And of course, it uses frames, but has no meaningful <noframes> content, so
fails utterly to conform to accessibility guidelines, telling
visually-impaired and text-only browsers "This page uses frames, but your
browser doesn't support them", and being otherwise almost impossible to use.
Altogether a bit of a mess, and looks like it was set up by someone with no
knowledge of HTML. Having looked at one of their ads, which produces a
sideways scroll bar even when viewed on its own, not in the frameset, at
1280 x 1024 resolution,  and photographs saved as GIF images, maybe you were
lucky not to be on their listing!

Even their own contact page has the sideways scroll at all resolutions, and
it also uses the incredibly naff MSIE-only "marquee" feature as well. As
this site is based in the UK, it would seem quite likely to be in breach of
the Disability Discrimination Act (1995).

> Situations like this do shake confidence in the net - so it is a great
> comfort to know that there are reputable websites who provide an excellent
> service such as www.globalmuseum.org and www.dramaticonline.com. I hope
> people find this information useful.
> Regards
> Lisa Harvey

It seems to me that before parting with money to be listed on a website you
should check the quality of the site in a range of browsers, not just in
Internet Explorer. Check it in Netscape 4.x, Netscape 6, Opera 5 (free from
http://www.opera.com/ ) and in a text-only browser or speaking browser
(Simply Web 2000 is free from http://www.econointl.com/sw/ ). If you know
someone who is knowledgable about web design, ask them to have a look too.
This will give you a good idea of what visitors will see or hear of your
page(s) on this site. If you want to check on accessibility, you can submit
the URL to the Bobby accessibility testing software at
http://www.cast.org/bobby/ .

Pete Gray

--
Peter M Gray
Museums Officer
East Lothian Council

Tel. 01620 828203
Fax. 01620 828201
****
The opinions expressed above are my own, and do not necessarily represent
the view of East Lothian Council.

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