iamlost - 9:00 pm on Mar 22, 2006 (gmt 0)

I suggest we meet in groups of less than five, on alternate Wednesdays, while walking the dog, wearing belted trenchcoat, wellies, and fedora pulled low...

Accessibility is a general category within a very broad data usability topic. The very first design consideration is that not everyone needs, wants, or should be exposed to everything. Limits are normal including upon accessibility.

We look at it from a content purveyors role because that is what we do. But it includes users, user agents, applications (i.e. text and wysiwyg editors), plus a multitude of standards, regulations, and laws...

Just as users have varying accessibility requirements so does each and every site. Being cross-browser viewable is an accessibility issue. Meeting a legal requirement (i.e. government sites) is another.

It is unlikely that private (non-govermental) sites will be forced to meet an accessibility law. There are simply too many jurisdictions. And moving is too easy.

Also restriction is totally acceptable: we already limit access by membership log-in, encryption, language, literacy, url, etc. Restriction by intent is not 'the' accessibility problem. What is is restriction by ignorance or incompetence or laziness.

Mismatch of character encoding, wysiwyg and cms coding atrocities, user agent display discrepancies are greater accessibility problems than non-semantic markup or non-degrading images/objects, styles/scripts or DocType or other 'on page' consideration. Though the latter are often simplier to 'fix' by virtue of being within our control.

The only site requirement is its scope. Sometimes legal, mostly defined through ROI and personal preference. Approximately a third of users have some web disability - which segment(s) are potential customers, which are not?

That said it is much simplier and much cheaper to do it (however you define 'it') right from the start. Retooling or redesigning is a royally expensive pita.

Plus graceful transformation is a sign of a professional and it feels good to be proficient at one's trade.

----

"What? You don't have alternatives for blind people on your photography portfolio site? I bet you like to kick babies too, don't you! Racist pig!"

I am an equal opportunity misanthrope. :-)

Blind people do buy for sighted friends and family and recommend or disparage just like their sighted compatriots. Note that adding appropriate long description pages is adding content...two birds with one stone...common with usabilty improvements.