A failure of the imagination
The current state of accessibility represents a failure of the imagination. Advocacy work on the part of groups like the National Federation of the Blind, the Royal National Institute of the Blind and Vision Australia has done much to raise awareness about the importance of accessibility. Guidelines such as those developed by the W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative have provided guidance for developers and designers in how to build accessible sites. Legislation such as Section 508 and the Disability Discrimination Act have provided a business case for meeting these standards. Awareness about accessibility and the brute force of legislation will only take accessibility to a certain point.
Designers do not emulate designs because they are accessible, they emulate sites that they admire or that inspire them. It is only by reaching the hearts and minds of the very designers who create websites that accessibility will truly become mainstream in its practice. Designers need to bring their considerable creative powers to bear on the specific challenges of accessibility. The accessibility community needs to value that power of design and to cultivate a culture of innovation and creativity in accessible design. To date, the absence of a connection between designers and accessibility represents the greatest failure of accessibility and its greatest challenge moving forward.
Bob Regan - Web Accessibility and Design: A Failure of the Imagination
To be fair I think you would have to acknowledge that the
current web accessibility and general web standards noise was
originated and driven in no small part by designers long before Macromedia was even uttering the words… still.
At one end of the spectrum is the Apple iTunes Store. This is a unique use of web components within an existing desktop application. Users access a web based interface through a browser embedded within the application itself.
Bob Regan - Web Accessibility and Design: A Failure of the Imagination
Well clearly this is incorrect unless the word “browser” is being used in a very general sense. I’m starting to wonder how much of this article is straight of the top of Bob’s head.
Not to say that the article doesn’t make a good read or that the main point isn’t a reasonable one. Maybe it’s really a failure of education—are accessibility issues raised at all in design courses?
