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Web sites designed for the 'Big Two' browsers are a bad idea, and can 'break' (function unexpectedly) on other Internet access tools. Hearing-impaired voters don't know what's in the speeches. Visually disabled customers can't see pop-up news and announcements. Television set-top boxes don't play all multimedia. Palm-sized computers hide information in off-screen tables, or jumble their contents. Handhelds don't show Web site index frames. Applets run into security barriers, crash browsers, or are simply ignored.
In the 2000 campaign, multimedia will be increasingly important--but the Web site it is part of must be crafted according to accessibility principles. Using accessibility principles from the ground up means a site can be built just once, yet for everyone.
Indeed, building a Web site only once is in a candidate's best interest. By understanding the goals of accessibility and the techniques of building accessible sites, candidates reach voters, reduce re-development time in deadline-conscious campaigns, and adhere to disability laws.
Accessibility falls into several general categories:
The initial creation of the Web's language was done with the understanding that the content (not the look) of a Web 'page' was to be identified. Any person using any technology, now or in the future, could access it.
So instead of thinking of Web pages as being made up of type fonts and layout, they were to be created by indicating (marking up) their content as headings, paragraphs, tables, lists, quotes, and other indications, along with an elegant navigation method known as hyperlinks. The visitor could move smoothly from page to page, site to site, in a multi-dimensional, non-parallel way, and consistent markup would guarantee a serviceable presentation of the content at every arrival point.
Furthermore, by specifying the type and version of markup used, the content could always be accessed in a useful way, whether it was ultimately displayed graphically, printed on paper, displayed as lines of text, spoken aloud, rendered in Braille, or presented with some yet-to-be-conceived technology.
Each stage of the Web's popularization, however, has carried with it certain assumptions, in the belief that the general public's needs are very different from the Web's academic origins.
Go to next section: Some Problem Examples
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