RE: Accessibility

Steve Williams wrote:
> please correct me if I am wrong but CSS does not render in
> IE pre 4.5 and NS pre 4.0 - it only part renders in IE5 and only in
> IE5.5+ can it be said to be browser compatible.........how is that
> providing accessability ?!

Well, you are wrong. V4 browsers can handle CSS, but not to the same extent
as the newer ones.

BUT, that doesn't really have anything to do with accessibility. YOu can
still serve up the same content to both IE6 and NN4. Just give each a
different style sheet.

Technically speaking, when one uses CSS properly, the HTML *is* the
text-only version. You're actually serving the text-only site to both
browsers, just that one gets the added bonus of CSS layout.

> .......One of our public sector customers
> in the legal profession who has gone down the route of using CSS for
> layout has had to produce a text only version to cater for the needs
> of earlier browsers to be truly accessible. 

Well, they hired a unskilled web development firm or they purchased an
incredibly restrictive CMS.

We purchased a CMS and, after two weeks, threw it out. They were touting
their 'modern, cutting edge, .net based system' yet their UI pretty much
forced you into a tag-soup, frames based, javascript-fly-out menuing system.


A lot of CMS products have been focusing on the back end system and have
completely forgetten about the front end presentation.

Again, the biggest hurdle to embracing accessibility is the continued
believe that accessibility is something that pertains to a disabled subset
of the market. Accessibility needs to be seen as a holistic goal. It helps
every single customer an organization has, and can even help cut down on
internal costs when implemented correctly from the get-go. Too many managers
see accessibility goals as a unecessary expense when they should be seeing
it as a necessary savings.

-Darrel