Life

[Bruno Girin]

On Sun, 2010-05-23 at 22:38 +0100, Phillip Whiteside wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> 
> I joined this mailing list via the ubuntu forum area. I write web
> sites and was interested in how much more difficult it is to write the
> code so that it complies with whatever standard is standard of the day
> (The wonderful thing about standards, is everyone can make their own).

It's not that difficult when starting from scratch. In practice, it's
the same techniques you would use to make your web site be usable on a
wide range of browsers: start with standard HTML and CSS, using HTML
tags according to their semantic meaning (h[1-6] for titles, ul or ol
for lists, etc) and CSS to handle the look and feel. Then add visual
improvements in such a way that they degrade gracefully (e.g., when
using Javascript, do it in such a way that your site still works when
Javascript is disabled) or that there is an alternative way to do the
same thing that uses HTML and CSS only.

Some resources I've found very useful in this regard:
http://diveintoaccessibility.org/
http://www.alistapart.com/topics/topic/accessibility/


> 
> 
> A bit of my background may be in order. When I was 20 years old I had
> written a programme that could do what Stephen Hawkins still uses
> using an 8 bit computer (an Atari 640 XL with additional memory board
> soldered in). There was no interest in me going forward with that for
> about 1/100th of the cost of what was being sold commercially by any
> of charities.
> 
> 
> My heart drops when the longest emails are about 'failed' projects,
> people's ascertations that future projects are doomed to failure. As a
> non-disabled person, can I please ask that the bickering of who /
> what / where / when is to fault stop?
> 
> 
> As has been pointed out on this thread, there are young programmers
> coming on-line. This next bit of news may come of a shock to some of
> you, but they do not actually care about a disability - it is such a
> 'non-event' to them - They focus on the person, if that person is a
> happy person they see happy. I that person is some what frustrated but
> articulate and realises that an able bodied can never fully understand
> how it is to be so then progress can be made. If their first contact
> is for a major doom and gloom assesment of how they will fail like
> everyone else has done, it is hardly going to keep them around for
> long?

Agreed. Even with the best will in the world, it is extremely difficult
for able people (of all ages) to understand the challenges faced by
disabled people.


> 
> 
> VEDICS is nice, they have a little funding and would possibly be
> interested in taking it forward, they are certainly not going to 
> 1) be interested in so doing with such negativity
> 2) be able to get any funding based on 'testimonial' emails.
> 
> 
> This is another young programmer who has written stuff
> 
> 
> http://bloc.eurion.net/archives/2010/espeak-gui-0-2/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>