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  • Accessibility isn't a "feature": Responding to a drive-by comment

    By Eric Stoller September 23, 2010 8:30 pm EDT

    I usually have several different post ideas floating around in my brain at any given time. I try to select a topic that I think will generate a post that interests both me and my readers. I had planned on writing about something other than course catalogs again (I mean, it's not like they are that glamorous) and I apologize for writing about them so soon. However, there was one comment that got my attention. Greg, who I would assume has never read anything that I've ever written before, left a comment that I feel needs to be addressed. He was responding to my list of features on my ideal online course catalog:

    My "dream" course catalog would include the following features: ACCESSIBLE
    Hi Eric, if you cannot make your "dream" accessible to the Deaf and Blind, and other disabilities, then you might as well leave it as a dream. It is the Law!
    Greg

    I suppose that I should have been prepared for what amounts to a drive-by comment. I think that it's important to mention that I frequently write about web accessibility. For example:

    • Accessible web services and technology providers
    • Do you YouTube? Don't forget to add captions
    • Going to EDUCAUSE - I plan on attending several sessions that feature web accessibility
    • And don't forget that I've been posting about web accessibility since 2005 at my virtual living room.

    Dear Greg, accessibility is not a "feature." Features are "additions" to core elements. Accessibility needs to be a core element of any and all websites. I don't think about accessibility as an extra bit of chrome. For me, accessibility is something that is standard. My list of ideal catalog features consisted of things that I would love to see residing atop a standards-based accessible online catalog.

    My Grandpa Clyde has had a progressive hearing impairment for as long as I can remember. Every time I would visit him, he would be wearing his hearing aids and the captions would be turned on when we watched television. I didn't realize it until recently that my passion for web accessibility comes directly from my love for my grandfather. Web accessibility has always been important to me because I grew up thinking about accessibility in a different context.

    Greg, thank you for the drive-by comment. I hope that you continue to read my posts. I promise that I will write more posts about accessibility in the near future.

    Do you tweet? Let's connect. Follow me on Twitter.

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Comments on Accessibility isn't a "feature": Responding to a drive-by comment

  • YouTube Captions
  • Posted by Bryce , Commencement Achievement Program Supervisor at Green River Community College on September 24, 2010 at 12:30pm EDT

  • When I was first introduced to my Dean here, I learned about her background in Disability Support Services. We got to talking about "universal design," and how it often does far more than increase access for students with disabilities (e.g. a ramp is useful for students in wheelchairs, people pushing food carts, people who have trouble walking up and down stairs, etc.). I had never considered the fact that so few YouTube videos include captions until I read your post about it and experienced a YouTube video (I think it's the one on RSS) with captions. Since I don't want to turn the video up very loud in my workspace and bother others around me, the captions helped out when I couldn't quite decipher what the speaker said. Captions should be a standard, particularly when YouTube is used as an educational medium.

    - Bryce

  • Posted by Greg on September 27, 2010 at 3:15pm EDT

  • Right Eric, and some of my best friends are Deaf and Blind too :-) The point is that it is not suffice just to write a stand-alone article "once in a while" about accessibility. Accessibility is an on-going process and should be alluded to in each and every excellent article/blog you write. Unless you keep accessibility front and center and add it somehow to everything, accessibility will never get done! I love the following resonse, why not use it everytime?
    "Accessibility needs to be a core element of any and all websites. I don't think about accessibility as an extra bit of chrome. For me, accessibility is something that is standard. My list of ideal catalog features consisted of things that I would love to see residing atop a standards-based accessible online catalog.

    Greg

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