why using graphics mode for a11y?

[Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis]

On 28/12/08 21:11, jonathon wrote:
> The practical reality is that a11y requirements can be mutually
> exclusive. What works for one set of a11y issues, need not, and often
> actively hinders, a different set of a11y issues.

Do you have a knockout example of accessibility requirements where the 
different needs could not be met by reconfiguration in a single browser?

Opera is a good example of browser that attempts to cater towards the 
needs of a wide variety of different disabilities:

    * It has zoom and fit-to-width capabilities.
    * You can set a minimum font size.
    * It comes bundled with a range of built-in alternate stylesheets, 
including high contrast layouts.
    * You can apply a user stylesheet.
    * It has the best built-in keyboard navigation of any popular 
browser, including spatial navigation with the arrow keys, skipping from 
form control to form control with the tab key, skipping from link to 
link, skipping from heading to heading.
    * On Windows, the Voice plugin allows Opera both to read webpages 
and be controlled by voice.
    * It includes screen reader support on Windows and Mac. (This is 
currently in a somewhat rudimentary state having recently been 
reintroduced, but it is there.)

I wouldn't say it has absolutely everything - for example, it doesn't 
include a provision for turning words into pictures like WebWide can - 
and it's not my browser of choice, but I don't see any fundamental 
technical barriers to adding new things to Opera's toolkit.

The value of keeping these things in one browser is a lot of the 
complicated work that browsers do needs doing for a wide range of 
disabilities, including:

* HTTP and FTP protocol communciation
* Parsing the various languages and codes (HTML, CSS, image formats).
* Scripting engine (JavaScript).
* Visual rendering of webpages.

This work would have to duplicated if there were to be browsers 
dedicated to every disability group under the sun. Catering to different 
disabilities is purely a matter of adding the ideal content 
transformations and user interface to match.

--
Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis