Comments on: Beijing 2008 Part One: accessibility (#080808)

By: Ultan

Ultan — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:54:28 +0000

FYI - there are synergies between accessibility and i18n coding demands. See: http://fm.multilingual.com/FMPro?-db=archives&-format=ourpublication%2ffeaturedarticlesdetail.htm&-lay=cgi&-sortfield=Magazine%20Number&-sortorder=descend&-op=cn&Author=ultan&intro=yes&-recid=33575&-find=

By: Henny

Henny — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:49:30 +0000

Hi Peter, thanks for the feedback. As you say it is interesting to see how far accessibility is taken seriously in international websites such as this and I hope the article inspires some change over the next year. From what I’ve seen of the site the issues that need addressing are not too overly complex or problematic and would go a long way to not just easing access to users with disabilities but everyone. An accessible website makes for a happier audience all round.

I’d already read with interest your post on the 2012 Olympic site and would be happy to chat further about this. By all means drop me a line at henny dot swan at rnib dot org dot uk.

I’d also be interested to talk to you about the accessibility of Second Life, which you wrote a great article on.

By: Peter Abrahams

Peter Abrahams — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:37:26 +0000

Henny
Thanks for the article I think it show how far we all still have to go before accessibility becomes the norm.
I recently had a first go at the 2012 Olympic web site http://www.it-analysis.com/blogs/Abrahams_Accessibility/2007/6/the_olympic_2012_logo_fiasco.html .
Given given that we are both in the UK and there is more time to get it right I would really appreciate your views on how to get the 2012 right.

By: JackP

JackP — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 09:45:53 +0000

What I should also have said was that it was a nice article, very interesting, and it reminded me of my early days in my current job where I was involved in results production for a World Veterans’ athletics event (back in the days before I’d even heard of “accessibility”).

Oh, and thanks for inspiring my full scale rant on the term i18n!

By: Henny

Henny — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:25:47 +0000

Hi Jack, I know what you are saying which is why they are only used once each. I think they are important to flag however so that when people see them elsewhere they know what it is. Other than that I whole heartedly agree that they should be avoided.

You did get me thinking though about the legibility as they are presented in the article. I’ve made an edit so that the text “also known as…” appears before each reference. Hopefully this will make it a bit clearer and explain away some of the jargonese.

By: JackP

JackP — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 10:23:43 +0000

Henny, a simple plea: the terms 118n and l10n are a barrier to understanding, they make for lazy writing, and even when expanded in the first instance they smack of incomprehensible computer jargonese. Please, no more!

…I’d better stop now as a feel a rant coming on :-)