[Mailman-Users] Web accessibility

[Brad Knowles]

At 8:22 AM -0500 2004-07-06, Bohnenkamp, Daniel J wrote:

>  How do you make Mailman web pages accessible to the blind people

	Well, you can start with the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative 
pages, starting at <http://www.w3c.org/WAI/>.

	Going to the "Quick Tips" page at 
<http://www.w3c.org/WAI/References/QuickTips/>, you will note that 
most items have to do with things related to graphics and multimedia. 
However, Mailman doesn't really make use of much graphics, and what 
little it does use graphics for is primarily for some minimal 
decoration.  Mailman doesn't use scripts, applets, or plug-ins, nor 
does it use frames, tables, graphs, or charts.  About the only 
relevant tips are the ones regarding hypertext links (which I believe 
we're already conformant with), and page organization (which I think 
we do pretty good at, although I don't think we use CSS).


	You can also check the FAQs that they have.


	In my own experience, most visually challenged people use 
text-mode browsers, such as "lynx" or "links", or programs that 
operate in a similar fashion (perhaps Netscape on a 24" monitor with 
96 point type and most advanced features turned off, like 
auto-loading graphics, javascript, java, etc...).  The output from 
these text-mode browsers may be fed into text-to-speech synthesizers.

	If you want to get a good idea of how your website looks to a 
visually challenged person, try using the same methods.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles at skynet.be>

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

     -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
     Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755

   SAGE member since 1995.  See <http://www.sage.org/> for more info.