- Editorial Opinion - June 1998

Contents

• Feedback
• Accessibility on The Web
  • Inaccessible Publicly-funded Sites
  • Web Access for Schools
• New to this Update of Phundria
• February's Editorial
• March's Editorial
• April's Editorial
• (There was no May editorial)

Feedback

If you haven't already read it, please read our April editorial, as both its subjects have assumed prominence in recent weeks, and are updated below.

We always welcome your comments whether you agree with us or not.

Accessibility on The Web

Inaccessible Publicly-funded Sites (Update)

Shortly after publishing our April editorial, some severe accessibility problems with the Number 10 Downing Street website emerged. Would you believe that this prime UK site was actually excluding virtually everybody not using Microsoft software on PCs! This site actually went as far as being featured in the Guardian's 'Online' supplement! Happily, the affair eventually resulted in some improvements to the site. We'd thought about going to town on it, but, after it was modified, we decided instead to create a mythical 'Website Number Ten', included in this issue.

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Web Access for Schools (Update)

We were never able to track down the original source of the disinformation we mentioned. It looks to have been a Usenet grumble blown slightly out of proportion.

After our April editorial, and quite coincidentally, a number of letters appeared in the press recommending that, rather than re-equipping schools with new computers, businesses who are upgrading their computer equipment should be persuaded to donate their old computers to their local schools rather than consigning them to a skip.

Provided that webpages and resources are carefully designed to ensure accessibility, this is an eminently practical way of getting the largest possible number of youngsters online, and at the lowest cost to the taxpayer. Moreover, if web accessibility is clearly seen to be a fundamental part of enabling this to happen, it will go a long way to encouraging more of us to provide accessible websites.

The Editor

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New to this Update of Phundria

This month we feature a mythical 'Website Number Ten'. Try it - it's a brief adventure game. You 'win' access to all you could wish for in terms of guidance and help to produce your own accessible webpages.

We've also manged to lose track of the 'Man from Bunco', but we're sure we'll catch up with him soon.

We've also updated (at last) the OnlineAwards Nominations.

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