[Nfb-web] our website and accessibility

[Chris Westbrook]

I was really disappointed when I looked at the website for our members area yesterday.  I wasn't so disappointed at the sparseness of content, Peter covered that eloquently Yesterday.  When I looked at the various forms to submit suggestions and other things, I noticed they weren't reading well with window eyes.  A quick look at the source reveals that there are no label tags anywhere.  For those of you who don't know, a label tag is a quick and standard way to associate text on the screen with a control such as a form field.  I know we are getting our site from a new content management system, but I would think accessibility would have been part of the process in determining which cms to use.  I think if we are going to advocate for accessibility, we need to have a website that is completely accessible and be a model for others.  I'm really disappointed that we chose the easy way out with a cms that doesn't output fully accessible content rather than look at our membership to see who could assist with a redesign.  It makes me wonder whether the national office functions above and outside of the membership, but that's another discussion for another post.  I hope things are handled better in the future.
Chris Westbrook
email or msn messenger; westbc at clw19.com
skype: chriswestbrook (please write a message that explains who you are if you add me to your contacts.)
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I was really disappointed when I looked at the website for our members area yesterday.  I wasn't so disappointed at the sparseness of content, Peter covered that eloquently Yesterday.  When I looked at the various forms to submit suggestions and other things, I noticed they weren't reading well with window eyes.  A quick look at the source reveals that there are no label tags anywhere.  For those of you who don't know, a label tag is a quick and standard way to associate text on the screen with a control such as a form field.  I know we are getting our site from a new content management system, but I would think accessibility would have been part of the process in determining which cms to use.  I think if we are going to advocate for accessibility, we need to have a website that is completely accessible and be a model for others.  I'm really disappointed that we chose the easy way out with a cms that doesn't output fully accessible content rather than look at our membership to see who could assist with a redesign.  It makes me wonder whether the national office functions above and outside of the membership, but that's another discussion for another post.  I hope things are handled better in the future.
Chris Westbrook
email or msn messenger; mailto:westbc at clw19.com westbc at clw19.com
skype: chriswestbrook (please write a message that explains who you are if you add me to your contacts.)