[musictlk] Inaccessible online contact forms and Websites

[Jorge Paez]

Hi Kerry and Josh:

I myself am an independent musician,
and I too, like many, knew I needed a website.

The difference for me though 
was that I wanted to control all the elements of my site.

The interesting thing I found was that most of the web creation programs
that are accessible from the creator's point are also accessible from the viewer's point.

The one core belief  that I've kept since the start when I founded my company 
even as we've tried different web technologies to keep up to date is 
that all the sites have to be accessible.

And since my team is composed of all blind individuals, its been easy to keep track of this.

However, there is also the issue of security, specially
when it comes to contact forms,
so I'd thought I'd put this out for opinions.

Do you think a plain contact form is better,
and just regulate the email that comes in,
or would a recaptcha (captcha with an audio file) be good enough for accessibility?


What do you guys think?

Thanks,

Jorge





On Feb 21, 2011, at 12:06 AM, Kerry Thompson wrote:

> Hi friends,
> 
> Sorry for not being around for a while.
> 
> Joshua, I agree with you completely about inaccessible web sites. It does need to be pointed out, though, that the musician or singer whose site it ostensibly is doesn't have anything to do with the design andmaintenanceof the site. So, don't blame the musician. It's the webmaster you need to contact about accessibility issues.
> 
> I also hate sites that have music that starts as soon as you land there. And, as you say, worse are sites where you can't shut off the music. Engelbert's old site was like that. I wrote to the contact address, which turned out to be his fan coordinator, and suggested a minor adjustment in the page coding that would let the visitor turn the music on and off. The fan coordinator was very nice and said she'd pass my suggestion on to the web team. I don't know if it's coincidence or my influence, but the new web site does not include music that comes on automatically and can't be switched off.
> 
> You've probably discovered this, but often the music is only on the home page. If you can manage to get to another page in the site, you should be all right. A well designed site has all the site links either on every individual page or on the main page of every section, so you don't really need the home page.
> 
> Your point about accessibility is well taken. With one glaring exception, all the instructors I had for Web Tech classes stressed that accessibility and usability, which are related but different,should always be part of good design practice. Unfortunately though, an awful lot of people who design and maintain web sites don't seem to have been taught this concept. Nor, apparently, have they heard of the W3C (the World Wide Web Consortium), which is just such a standards body as you mention. Adhering to W3C standards ensures that your site is correctly constructed and well designed. That in turn pretty much guarantees that it is maximally usable and accessible. But, you can't force people to conform to W3C guidelines, more's the pity. All you can do is write to the individual sites you visit and point out their usability and accessibility shortcomings.
> 
> Mike, I don't think it matters whether you're using SAPI, say, or an external synthesizer. This is a basic web design element. If a designer/developer is going to use music on a site, he darned well ought to know how to use it properly. That means setting it up so it can be turned off by the visitor, or better yet (best practice) left as an element the visitor can activate or not, at the visitor's choice. The problem, as I said before, is that a great many people who create and maintain web sites don't, in fact, know what they're doing. They don't even run their pages through HTML and CSS validators, much less make any attempt to meet the W3C's accessibility guidelines. Either they don't know or they don't care that badly formed code doesn't run optimally on anyone's browser.
> 
> As I said before, accessibility and its parent concept, usability are essential elements of good web design. The problem is that far too few people know what constitutes good web design let alone actually practice it. It's not something that we as blind Internet users need, it's a standard that simply is not striven for most of the time. Like you, though, I don't know anyway to make people understand and implement the concept. The W3C has no enforcement powers. All they can do is promulgate standards and hope people pay attention to them. There's no way to make people pay attention to them. All anyone can do, as you and I have both pointed out, is to contact each web site as we come across it and politely ask that they resolve their accessibility issues. Suggesting that the webmaster or web team take a look at the W3C's standards and guidelines would be a good idea as well. Spreading awareness of the W3C is always a good thing.
> 
> Kerry
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