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Re: [atlarge-discuss] List/website/connectivity



At 23:31 -0700 2002/09/30, eric@hi-tek.com wrote:
>...Good job for no pay, thank you.
>
>OTOH, I connected through a dial up at about 33, which I think is a good
>exemplar medium basis for users in the world.  And the web site killed
>me. It is not something you want to bring a developing nation user into.

I'm afraid I have to agree. I've got a 56k modem and the current iCab browser (very popular in the Mac world) but the Web site does load slowly and the navigation could be easier. 

Connection speed is a *big* problem in many parts of the world (which, BTW, includes rural Florida, as I discovered to my horror on my last visit to the U.S.) since telephone lines tend to be overused, affected by weather, etc. Nice as the visual embellishments may be, it's very frustrating when you can't load a page at one go before the connection wobbles on you, just as it's frustrating for people paying per-minute for dialup access to *have* to wait for graphics to load when what they're looking for is information.

Personally, I'm rather against the use of graphics, frames and tables except where they are really essential, and in favour of providing alternate (accessible by text-browser or text-to-speech software for the visually impaired) pages where they are used. 

Given that a good proportion of the non-industrialized world is dependent on the older equipment donated and shipped to them and is not equipped for the constant-upgrade lockstep, and given that English is difficult for some of them in the first place, I think we need to consider ease of access a priority.

>{I absolutely do not mean this as a reverse looking critical statement
>of the wonderful hard work that has been essentially donated to building
>the site that has help bring over a thousand people}
>
>I mean this as a forward looking suggestion of reality in a digital
>world.

I'm in complete agreement with Eric and simply hope that our Webmaster and Web WG will take these issues into account in their site design. There are some good explanations of accessibility issues at http://www.w3.org/wai and links therefrom.

Regards,

Judyth

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Judyth Mermelstein     "cogito ergo lego ergo cogito..."
Montreal, QC           <espresso@e-scape.net>
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"A word to the wise is sufficient. For others, use more."
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