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Election 2006 (and beyond): Digital Copyright Canada
From: russell_-at-_flora.ottawa.on.ca (Russell McOrmond)
Date: 21 Aug 2000 18:08:37 -0400
Awesome article on accessibility...
---
Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://russell.flora.org/work/>
Elect Joan Russow in Okanagan-Coquihalla <http://www.voterussow.org/>
Elect Ralph Nader for U.S. President! <http://www.votenader.org/>
Green Party of Canada: Convention 2000 <http://Ottawa2000.flora.org/>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 17:45:27 -0400 (EDT)
From: Patrick Burton <madmagic@ICOMM.CA>
Reply-To: cpi-ua@vcn.bc.ca
To: cpi-ua@vcn.bc.ca
Subject: Volnet's purported "Learner's Guide" (was Re: [CPI-UA]: More Canadian
content...)
On Mon, 21 Aug 2000, Paul Nielson wrote:
> Information Highway Applications Branch
> VolNet Program Internet Skills Development Manual: User's Manual
> Internet Address: http://www.volnet.org/english/Learner's_Guide.html
I've no objection to using Adobe [TM] .pdf [TM] for what it's good for.
But it isn't good for web documents aimed at large diverse audiences on
multiple platforms with multiple levels of access and ability.
Like, say, the people of Canada.
Especially the people of Canada who are just now learning to use the
Internet, for themselves and for the community groups they care about.
Equally so, no objection to converting Microsoft [TM] PowerPoint [TM]
presentations into web pages and providing them on a government-funded
website as graphic images of text.
Sometimes deadlines press on people, and getting out information fast in
whatever format you have is important. However, I could much easier accept
this bad Powerpoint --> web page compromise -- if it was openly stated as
such, apologized for, and an announcement of when we could expect a proper
HTML'd web page to appear was prominently featured.
I do, *very* strongly, object to the assumptions built into providing a
purported "User's Manual" and "Learner's_Guide.html" [sic] that assumes:
1) the Users/Learners are all on MS Windows, or can easily and simply
convert MS-Windows-aimed documents into formats they can actually read.
2) all of the Users/Learners are on graphics-capable computers.
HTML and WWW open standards exist to serve all platforms and users.
Dressing up the text of a document in order to make it prettier -- and in
the process, making it unreadable for people with vision disabilities,
people on non-mainstream or older hardware or non-graphic Internet
connections -- is, to be very blunt, a stupid use of the web that is
clearly discriminatory against people living with disabilites and some of
the poorest of the poor.
This is a helluva bad example for VolNet to be showing. Shame on the
Government of Canada, for letting this decision of promoting appearance-
over-substance happen. Double shame on them for paying out tax dollars to
do it; triple and quadruple shame for calling it a "Learner's Guide" when
it excludes the poorest of the poor and many folks with disabilities.
This does not promote or help the voluntary sector. It hurts it. Whoever
is responsible should provide proper web pages -- in HTML, an open
standard -- first. Then, let them pretty up if they have time and budget.
Again, shame.
-Patrick
supporting the CNIB Library, the CNIB and multiple other groups
with disabilities since 1995 on the World Wide Web [no TM] -- a
free Open Source Internet standard.
> In the February 1998 budget, the federal government announced the
> creation of the Voluntary Sector Network Support Program (VolNet) to
> "expand the technological capacity of the voluntary sector" and to
> "enhance the capacity of voluntary organizations." It established a
> target of offering connectivity to 10,000 voluntary organizations by
> March 31, 2001. This target will be reached by providing organizations
> with access to computer equipment and Internet connections, support
> and Internet skills development. One aspect of skills development is
> the distribution of the VolNet Program Internet Skills Development
> Manual - User's Manual.
--
"It is ignorance, not knowledge, that makes others say that there are
many worlds, when we know that there is one. Ours." -- Kofi Annan
<http://www.iComm.ca/madmagic>
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