Actually Peter, initially I thought you were tough UNTIL I visited the  
site. Content fine (one my hand-lens was out), rest no excuse!  It is  
important to ALL of us to have proper input from professionals like you  
so we don't get s****** by choosing a REALLY affordable vendor.

Thanks

Lois

Lois Brynes, Principal
	DeepTime Associates
	P.O. Box 58
	Rockport, MA 01966
	USA
[log in to unmask]
land	978 546-8574


On Apr 15, 2005, at 10:40 AM, Gray, Peter wrote:

> You are probably right that I was a little harsh, but I've become  
> increasingly frustrated by the lauding of web sites that, while having  
> a pretty, shiny surface, don't even reach first base in terms of the  
> quality and accessibility of their construction. It's particularly  
> irritating because with HTML huge amounts of accessibility are  
> built-in if you just do things right in the first place. Accessibility  
> is not an additional plug-in, it's not an additional cost -- it comes  
> free if designers/coders just know what they are doing and follow the  
> specifications (which is what you would expect a professional in any  
> other sphere to do). It can be hard to make physical things like  
> buildings and exhibitions accessible, but we expect it to be done.  
> It's easy with web sites, and we should expect no less.
>
> Of course once you have, through ignorance or incompetence, designed  
> accessibility _out_, there is a cost in correcting the mistake. But  
> no-one could expect the people who commissioned the site to know all  
> these things - that's why they employ professionals to do it - but  
> they are the ones who will bear the consequences of disgruntled  
> visitors (whom you will likely never hear from, they will just go  
> elsewhere) and potential law suits.
>
> Note that, for example, in a study carried out for Microsoft in 2003,  
> approximately one in four of working age adults have a visual  
> difficulty or impairment. You can download the report here:
> <http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/1/f/01f506eb-2d1e-42a6-bc7b 
> -1f33d25fd40f/ResearchReport.doc>.
>
> If I seem a little (or more than a little) grumpy, it's because I am  
> fed up with seeing the same simple basic mistakes made over and over  
> again in museum web sites, by people who, if they have any pretensions  
> to professionalism, ought to know better.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Pete
> -- 
> Peter M Gray
> Museums Officer
>

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