Re: LYNX-DEV Article for gms/Hamburg 'Internet for blind people'

[Al Gilman]

Andreas,

Lynx-dev is primarily developers of Lynx and primarily sighted 
people.  I wonder at your "To:" header, quoted below.

There is a small but very active online community of blind 
people.

To get started finding them, I suggest you might start at the
BLYNX site

http://www.leb.net/blinux/blynx/

which will link you into quite a web of other blind-interest
materials that are available online.

The Americans with Disabilities Act has raised the consciousness
of the blind to claim a right to access information that is
published on the Web.  [Just my personal opinion, next] It has
not yet had much influence on the content and structure of server
sites on the WWW.  New principles take time to define themselves
in court.  It is only gradually becoming known what the ADA
actually means in the workplace.  At the present time there is a
lot of residual uncertainty as to what _any_ law means on the
Internet, at the moment, and that includes the ADA consequences
for WebSites.

There was a "Launch" of a new Web Access Initiative at the most
recent WWW conference, but as with many high-tech initiatives,
there is yet a lot of vapor in what was launched.  This
initiative is predicated on the idea that disabled access on the
Web is not good now and not improving.  A technical+education fix
is sought.

See the W3.org website for more on the WAI.

HTH
--
Al Gilman

prior message:
  From: Andreas Schmitz <address@hidden>
  To: Blind People using internet <address@hidden>
      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ --!
  Subject: LYNX-DEV Article for gms/Hamburg 'Internet for blind people'
  Message-ID: <address@hidden>
  Sender: address@hidden
  Precedence: bulk

  Hello,
  
  I'm writing an article for gms-themendienst/Hamburg on "blind
  people using internet". I am sure the lynx-browser as an purely
  textbased browser is the most efficient for blind people.
  Unfortunately, I didn't find any studies on how often the browser
  is used and by whom: If you have special information on the users
  of the lynx browser please send it by mail.  In addition I'd like
  to know, if the Disability Act has any consequences on the
  structure of web-sites and of what kind they are.  Many thanks
  
  Andreas Schmitz 
  Tel/Fax +49-40-511 31 66 
  e-mail address@hidden 
  Hamburg, Germany