TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Posada
>
>http://www.able-ezine.org/
>
> While I'm not an expert in this type of web site, something makes me
> think that aside from it being a weak resource, it is infact, not
> created with the proper standards and mechanics in mind.
John,
I certainly won't claim to be an "expert" on sites for the disabled. That
said, I do maintain a medical reference site (http://www.painonline.org)
that's used regularly by people with varying degrees of disability so I do
try to be aware of general design principles that affect disabled users.
This site apparently tries to be cute and flashy, at the expense of
usability. The variety of text colors can cause problems for some users
(varying contrast and detracts from intuitive navigation), and I'd think the
flashing animation can cause trouble for others, especially those who have
trouble with spasticity that could come into play when their eyes are trying
to read the text.
I clicked the Text Version link and found one looooong page that apparently
contains every article on the site. Yuck! Bad for anyone, let alone disabled
folks.
On the Home page, none of the graphics include ALT text, a big no-no for
disabled sites. When I clicked on one of the links for an article, I found a
text page overlaid on top of wallpaper with artsy text background, making it
difficult to read. I also think there's a problem on one page where I found
text titles (BTW, *never* use purple text on black background!), but the
only link was on the icon beside the text. It's easy to imagine that most
users would click a couple of time on the text first before finding the link
on the icon.
On top of all this, (and keep in mind I only had a few moments on the site),
I'm not sure what their goal is with this page. I noticed that the text page
had several short pieces, mostly written by teenagers it seemed. Is this a
page where people can submit stuff they've written because writing about
their condition made them feel better? There's nothing wrong with that at
all, but the name of the site made me think there would be at least a little
bit of useful medical information.
All of this, and they have a grant to help support the site. I could use one
of those! :)
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
TECH*COMM 2001 Conference, July 15-18 in Washington, DC
The Help Technology Conference, August 21-24 in Boston, MA
Details and online registration at http://www.SolutionsEvents.com
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
