when writing to webmers

David Poehlman poehlman1 at comcast.net
Thu May 15 08:54:26 EDT 2003


I couldn't agree more.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Aaron Howell" <aaron at kitten.net.au>
To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2003 8:48 AM
Subject: when writing to webmers


Guys, its all very well to bitch on this list about the stupid things
webmasters do,
but please keep in mind when you're emailing someone to get something fixed
that.
1. They probably aren't doing whatever they're doing deliberately.
Some of those bits of code are inserted automatically by content management
software,
and webmasters may not even be aware the are there.
2. Your average webmaster doesn't care that you prefer to use a text based
browser than IE, IE is a fine browser for sighted folk, and not too many
webmasters share the anti Microsoft sentiment that is so rampent on this
list. Slamming IE won't win you any friends.
If you want them to see your point of view,the you need to explain in a
rational manner why supporting text based browsers is important. That
doesn't mean threatening them with the ADA or your local equivalen thereof.
Nor does it mean hammering them about netscape and friends, none of those
browsers show the noframes content anyway, so complaining that they don't
appear in the list of browsers you could upgrade to is likely to illicit
nothing else than "who cares".
3. Be gentle. Noone likes to have their work criticised, so while telling
them they are wrong,constructively, its often helpful to say, but I do like
this and this about your site.
(even if you have to look hard for something to like).

While its fine to blow off steam on list, attacking a webmaster for
something trivial like  badly worded noframes tag
will either get you labelled as a wingeing blindy, or (if its an
international site), a stupid American.
Worse still, if webmasters get complaints about trivial things like noframes
tags, which don't affect accessibility at all,
They will begin to see the blind community in general as a bunch of winers,
and will be less likely to assist us when  really do need something fixed.

So if you're going to email someone about a website,
be constructive not destructive,
and save threats of legal or government action until the webmaster has been
given a chance to amend the problem first.
While your local discrimination act will probably get the job done, it will
do the blind community no good to be known as a group that runs to the law
every time they see a problem, without first giving people a chance to fix
it nicely.
(Yes, that means you NFB).
Most webmasters are pretty decent people, and usually when contacted, they
will not only fix the problem,
but they'll spend time learning at how they can prevent the same thing
happening again in the future
You rarely strike a bonehead who won't respond to a nice letter asking them
to please review their site,
and thats when you can use threats of legal or government action to assist
them in adjusting their attitude.
So, lets all try to make informing webmasters of problems a positive
experience.
Regards
Aaron

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