iamlost - 2:07 am on Mar 23, 2006 (gmt 0)

Don_Hoagie is quite right that no site can be made accessible to every person. In future digital data transformation applications may allow for that but certainly not now or in the near future.

One advantage of working outside of the US is that the legal atmosphere is less crazed. But I do see accessibility being treated either as a fad or as a political 'need' rather than as one of many necessary site considerations.

While I have not encountered

"And make sure this site works for deaf people who use Macs." "But.. your site is a library for Windows event sounds..."

in a RFQ I have seen similar 'silly' requirements. And billed extremely silly amounts to meet the specification. There is no silly requirement only silly costs.

There are always those who go to extremes. Providing no one is hurt or scares the horses such people should be commended for showing the rest of us where the cliff edges truly are.

Actually I like the accessibility nuts. Just as I like the all-Flash nuts, the nested-table nuts, the best-viewed-in nuts, the out-of-date SEO nuts, the font-attribute nuts, various flavours of SERP and ad and affiliate nuts...

Sadly only a few web-geeks care about anything except 'what ROI have you done for me today and how much better will you do for me tomorrow'. Especially on a golf course.

Creating the original content takes greater time and effort than "just" creating the original content and additionally creating the extra content and software accommodation...?

Yes, more is less :-)
Increasing accessibility often takes more time than not but frequently there are returns beyond mere 'accessibility' such as increased uniques and additional site content.

What is missed by so many is that accessibility is but a component of a site. It is not an end in itself. It is one of the means by which you accomplish the end of having a successful site.

The sign of great accessibility is that if something doesn't work there is something else to do do the job. Graceful failure. No jumble, no nothing.

Who is your site for? What do they need to use the site? Meeting those needs is accessibility. It is really that simple. Of course simple is not necessarily easy.