[access-uk] Re: Google is more accessible from today

  • From: "Tristram Llewellyn" <tris-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2006 11:15:24 -0000

"is it an improvement to accessibility or just a confluence by design or
miss-fortune of one feature within one popular screenreading product and
the semantics of a single website."

In the spirit of discussion I would argue clearly not, as more than one screen 
reader navigates by headings for the rather more academically erudite and 
upright purpose that the WAI WCAG may aprove of.  Rigorous self contained 
interpretation of guidelines is one thing, and real life is another, and there 
is a danger in thinking that committees that make up WAI WCAG guidelines can do 
everything.  There is, if you want to think of things that rigorously no such 
thing as technology independant accessibility, it is in fact a web of 
interconnected technologies and standards.  Even assuming such bodies can think 
of or decide upon some other kind of structural mark up that would have this 
effect, a screen reader or for that matter another type of accessibility aid 
would still have to be coded for this if the guidelines are to remain as such 
rather than a top down literal standard that all websites should follow.


Regards.

Tristram Llewellyn
Sight and Sound Technology
Technical Support
www.sightandsound.co.uk

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