Comments on: The Accessibility Challenge

By: Kassia Krozser

Kassia Krozser — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 00:26:36 +0000

You’re correct about the lack of training (and it not necessarily being a web problem. However, users have close to 20 years of using their tools incorrectly, retraining them at this point is going to be rough. I’m working on a series of articles about challenges relating to gathering, preparing, and migrating content to a content management system. If you’ve ever done this for a large site, you know it’s not pretty.

As for writing skills, I could go on for days about that particular issue. I’ll spare you the diatribe.

By: Darrel

Darrel — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 19:51:05 +0000

It’s really a lack of training at the root. It’s not even about the web per-se. It’s about good writing skills first and foremost. Second to that, it’s about using the basic tools like MS Word properly. Few folks actually use MS Word to produce structured documents (ie, using actual headers, lists, etc.). And I’m not even going to go into the organizations that have most of their content stuck in Powerpoint files… ;o)

By: Kassia Krozser

Kassia Krozser — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 03:10:31 +0000

We’ve tried training and offered guidelines, but the issue is that these are not web professionals. They don’t know enough about HTML to understand the Bobby or Cynthia checks. Reading the accessibility reports requires fairly in-depth understanding of coding for the web (heck, I do this all the time, and often find myself puzzling over the best way to handle things). These checking tools can be very helpful, but I firmly believe that widespread acceptance of coding for accessibility requires making it as easy as possible on the people doing the actual work. I’m not sure there’s an easy solution to this, but we continue to work on achieving this goal.

By: Jeanne Spellman

Jeanne Spellman — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 02:54:47 +0000

Have you considered training them on some simple assessibility tools? One of the free toolbars for IE or Firefox, or the Checky Firefox extension to make it easy to do a Bobby or Cynthia check on the content once published may help them.

By: Darrel

Darrel — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 21:13:00 +0000

Wow. We’re having the same issue where I work. We’re a government organization and I’ve been part of a (very small) team that has been building our own in-house CMS system. We’ve seen some progress, but we still have a ton of legacy content stuck in Word and PDF documents. What’s worse is that rarely, if ever, are these source Word files properly formatted in any logical manner that would aid in accessibility.

It’s a daunting task. The one thing we’re trying to do is to get folks to stop thinking in terms of ‘documents’ and instead in terms of ‘content’. Is this content the public needs? Is there a strong reason to keep a MS Word version? If not, stick the content into the CMS and keep it there as the source.

I do agree that a ‘content guidelines’ policy of some sort is a good first step. The reality is that few people have ever been properly trained in preparing content for the web…let alone properly using basic tools like MS Office. A bit of training goes a long way toward getting broader understanding.

By: Kassia Krozser

Kassia Krozser — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 03:42:11 +0000

If you’re doing the conversion for a government agency, they may not have the budget to redo their PDFs. It’s a time consuming process unless all of the files are short and simple. It might make more sense to set a long-term goal of converting documents as time permits. I realize this sounds harsh, but (unless budget permits), it’s going to be a huge process, and most government sites have a lot of content that needs to be prepared outside of the legacy content. By prioritizing legacy content and developing a game plan, you might make better use of your resources.

Writing for the web is an entirely different challenge. Every person has a different view of what is the appropriate level for writing. Sure, it’s easy to say clear and concise, but what does that mean exactly? The next answer is it depends on the subject matter and the audience. This is not an easy concept to address, much less teach.

Okay, that probably sounded a bit cynical, but writing is not easy for everyone, and chances are, especially in a government agency, the person tasked with the job is not naturally a writer. A similar situation exists with editors. It’s a tough job, and if you’re job is editorial on top of other things (or you’re the “webmaster” because it’s a title that corresponds with your job duties), this may not be part of your skill set.

Yes, in an ideal world, writing and editorial functions would be factored into the mix, but my reality (and yours may differ!) is that these tend to be afterthoughts. While most government agencies still have websites, they, like many for-profit businesses, haven’t quite worked out how to integrate their websites (and other Internet functions) into regular workflow. There are a lot of models, but not a lot guidelines.

By: blog | bookslope

blog | bookslope — Fri, 04 Feb 2005 03:28:04 +0000

The Accessibility Challenge
alt tags » The Accessibility Challenge: Accessibility, Usability and Web Standards http://www.alttags.org/archives/2005/02/02/41/ このブログは見逃していた気がするなあ。「アクセシビリティ」に関して問題点をまとめ…

By: ben bailey

ben bailey — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 23:11:34 +0000

we are facing the same challenges with a similar govt site redev. there are currently hundreds of PDFs on the site and it is going to be a huge if not impossible task to create html versions of them all once the new site goes live.
quality of markup aside remember another challege is that most people have little idea how to write good content for the web. unless all contributors are trained you will need an editor or editorial team to not only clean up markup but edit content.

By: Phil Wilson

Phil Wilson — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 21:24:02 +0000

Great advice! I can’t believe I haven’t seen your site before, excellent stuff.

On a related, but different note, you don’t seem to mention on your “about” or “contact” pages which country you’re actually based in. US?

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