[Gllug] FW: Barbican website - accessibility issues

[CEvers at barbican.org.uk]

Dear GLLUG

Many thanks to everyone who responded to my message below - your comments
and suggestions have been very useful, and I'm sorry I don't have the time
to respond to you individually.  Just to update you on what's happening this
end, the Barbican has just appointed an in-house web designer for the first
time, which will give us more control over design/construction issues.  The
designer's focus will initially be on micro sites (e.g. Beyond Nashville,
BITE etc.) which are increasingly used in our marketing campaigns.  I hope
you will be pleased to hear that we have committed to providing text-only
alternatives for all future micro sites.  I am about to email a couple of
you with invites to come down to the Barbican for a face-to-face discussion
on the main site, and I will keep you all posted on how that turns out.

Best wishes, Chris

>  -----Original Message-----
> From: 	Chris Evers  
> Sent:	12 November 2002 14:50
> To:	'gllug at linux.co.uk'
> Subject:	Barbican website - accessibility issues
> 
> Dear Greater London Linux Users Group
> 
> Some of you contacted me recently about the Barbican Centre website and
> commented on problems related to its accessibility, both for people with
> disabilities and users of non-Microsoft/Netscape browsers.  I promised to
> respond via your group email address as the issues are clearly of concern
> to all of you - and to me too.
> 
> To take disabled access first, I guess we would all agree that the key
> group here is people with visual impairments. Visual impairment is not an
> all or nothing condition, and not all visually-impaired people want to use
> text-only browsers and/or text-to-speech converters, simply because they
> enjoy using sites that have interesting visual content.  
> However, I think you are absolutely right that we should be aiming to meet
> the needs of all our audiences (within reason), and it is something that
> has been discussed inside the organization.  I would like to assure you
> all that this is something we want to work towards.  One question the
> Barbican has to come to a view on, given its inevitably limited resources,
> is, where should we start?  I'll come back to this point shortly.
> 
> On the second point of browser compatibility, as I mentioned in my
> original email, at the time the site was designed, Opera and the others
> were off the radar.  And much as I agree with the point made by Gary
> Heaton and Will Jessop that making the site compliant with W3C standards
> will make the site compatible with future developments in the browser
> industry, I do believe that an arts site has a duty to be visually
> interesting/aesthetically pleasing - would this be possible if we followed
> W3C standards to the letter?  I'm not convinced.  However, I agree that
> the environment has changed now - the open source community has made a
> real impact and browsers like Opera are becoming more widespread.  Again,
> the Barbican needs to take this into account.  Again, the question I come
> back to is, where should we start?
> 
> I also wanted to quickly deal with the comment from Linuxlover that I am
> "bowing to corporate giants such as Microsoft".  I think that Microsoft
> have been a force for good and for bad in the development of IT over the
> last 20 years.  On the negative side are the issues we all know about from
> the anti-trust case in the US.  On the positive side I would argue that
> their products have made IT affordable to many more individuals and
> organizations than would have been possible otherwise - I suspect you
> disagree with me on this!
> 
> So getting down to details, what concrete steps should the Barbican be
> taking to evolve its website in the broad direction you and I agree we
> should be taking?  I would like to invite 3 or 4 of you down to the
> Barbican for a chat about this (tea and biscuits on me) - how about Gary,
> Will and Linuxlover - I promise not to wear a 'Gates is God' t-shirt.  If
> you have members who act as representatives for this kind of exercise,
> even better - but please, no businesses.  (Naturally, you are all welcome
> to email me back as well.)  So, over to you.
> 
> Best wishes, Chris Evers
> 
> 
> 
> Chris Evers
> Head of IT, Barbican Centre
> e: cevers at barbican.org.uk
> t:  020 7382 7111
> f:  020 7382 7254
> www.barbican.org.uk
> 


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