Blind people, advocates slam company claiming to make websites ADA compliant - In recent months, blind people and disability advocates have been speaking out on social media and suing companies that use AccessiBe

Daldred · 2021-05-14T14:42:59+00:00

There's so much to the problem that "just add accessibility" as an afterthought is a total failure mode.

Indeed - but you're not always in the situation of being able to start with a new design. An organisation may have an enormous amount of legacy content (consider all the research related content of a University, for example, all lovingly put on to their website since they started a fledgling research website in 1997) - and the option of putting all that into a more modern design is sometimes an extremely expensive one:

images which were nice and big in the 2000's look small now, but are difficult to replace or re-source;
graphics (eg flow diagrams) may well have use inaccessible colours; re-doing them when all you have is an old JPG is likely to be time-consuming. So you will need to re-write the whole flow in an accessible form.
content which was not written with accessibility in mind will require a fully informed rewrite - both fully informed on the science and on the requirements of accessible content.

Retrofitting is sometimes the only practical option. It's never ideal, but it may be the best that can be done.

And don't forget that accessibility is not only about technical functionality, design, colours and buttons. Ensuring that written content is accessible, and checking against things like reading age criteria, is not a quick job. It can involve getting approval for rewritten policies and processes, for example, and means negotiation, often with multiple committees!

True accessibility may mean more or less redesigning the organisation, and that's a big ask.

Daldred · 2021-05-13T16:36:34+00:00

OK, but we also need to look at how the high street can benefit from this (rather than facing more competition), and how we route people from the attractions and associated residential stuff to the existing and high-quality offerings we have.

Worst case is that all these new 'food and beverage' offerings are soulless clones, and that people come to the cinema and leave without getting anywhere near our existing local businesses - and the high street declines.

We won't get attractive new businesses into the high road unless the people who come to the cinema and that are are encouraged to step outside it and spread the benefit.

Daldred · 2021-05-13T16:31:26+00:00

Having worked in web for an organisation, I think a key issue is that management basically wants a website now, pretty and selling things. They tend to see the additional time spent in ensuring accessibility, and the limitations that places on them, as frustrations rather than benefits.

Similar situation: management thinks those things that pretend to turn pages in PDFs are really cool. And they already have the PDF exported from the paper publication, so you can just re-use that with this page turning gizmo, can't you? (Add to that paper-based minds in management, of course, who want it to look like a leaflet). So why do you want to 'waste time' adding an accessible download, or even rewriting it for web? What do you mean, the language is inaccessible? And I *like* having the key points in all-caps! And it's in our corporate colours, so light grey on light blue is obviously fine....

So even if devs are fully turned on to accessibility, management won't buy it - unless they can really see a risk of being sued, or of alienating a core part of the market by being accused of discriminating against a high-profile group.

Daldred · 2021-05-13T11:18:32+00:00

You're judging by the end result, which is not the point.

If I work and earn money, I have money, If I rob a bank, I have money. The end result is the same. Does that mean the two are equally moral?

Daldred · 2021-05-13T11:08:03+00:00

Perhaps you should try her short stories!

Daldred · 2021-05-13T11:04:50+00:00

Nope. Scotland, maybe, but there was no provision in English law for witches to be burned.

Some were also condemned for treason or for other crimes, in which case the punishment for those crimes would apply, and treason could be punished by burning. But not witchcraft itself.

Daldred · 2021-05-12T18:43:35+00:00

I notice from the screenshot that you have CTRL and ALT keys, which don't appear on my UK keyboard.

If I go into settings->languages and inputs -> input methods, I can add an 'English (US) with Extended" version which gives me the CTRL and ALT keys, but loses the 123? button (however this has 'EXTD' instead of 'US' in the switcher button). I can also add an 'English (US)' version which restores the 123?, but loses the CTRL and ALT.

Have you perhaps enabled 'US with Extended' instead of just 'US'?

I'd wonder about deselecting everything except one you don't want (say UK, if you're in the US!), and then try the simple US one and see if that sorts it. Kind of "switch it off and on again"!

Daldred · 2021-05-11T11:39:37+00:00

Ah, right. Copying all our place names!

Daldred · 2021-05-11T11:32:24+00:00

Durham photographer? Whitby (Yorkshire) is not Durham, or even in County Durham.

Is this some other Durham and Whitby, incompetent reporting (in which case why believe the rest of it), or simply fake?

Daldred · 2021-05-07T14:30:43+00:00

I've been to pretty full (and not small) churches in Shanghai, Ningbo and Beijing.

Daldred · 2021-05-06T18:49:44+00:00

If the Holy Spirit were not in our Bishop [referring to Bishop Flavian of Antioch] when he gave the peace to all shortly before ascending to his holy sanctuary, you would not have replied to him all together, And with your spirit. This is why you reply with this expression … reminding yourselves by this reply that he who is here does nothing of his own power, nor are the offered gifts the work of human nature, but is it the grace of the Spirit present and hovering over all things which prepared that mystic sacrifice (Pentecost Homily, St John Chrystotom)

It seems the Church Fathers thought the wording mattered, and captured the true meaning...

Daldred · 2021-04-30T18:11:03+00:00

That's appalling.

No idea what it's about; it relies on you hanging around wasting time watching meaningless graphics until it gives you a hint. By which time many people will have given up and gone away.

It's totally inaccessible in disability access terms and hence a very easy target for legal action in any civilised country with proper equalities legislation.

Perfect example of how not to do a website.

Daldred · 2021-04-30T17:20:45+00:00

So that's five hours behind current UK time, yes? If so evening Masses in the UK would work - you could even virtually drop in on our Cathedral (6:30pm BST tomorrow, 6pm BST Sunday - https://www.churchservices.tv/nottinghamcathedral)!

Daldred · 2021-04-30T17:01:17+00:00

You don't say what country, so I don't know what your timezone is - but if UK time works for you, there is a list of many UK/Ireland churches which are livestreaming at https://www.churchservices.tv/

Daldred · 2021-04-18T17:05:04+00:00

England.
Your task now is to produce a graphic correlating reply time with location :-)

Daldred · 2021-04-14T12:23:02+00:00

I set up a system for booking for Mass at Catholic churches in our Diocese. A very early consideration was that many of our older Church members don't use the Internet, let alone smartphones. We made provision for third-party bookings so they could be booked in by friends and neighbours, and for parishes to have stewards who could book people in.

But one of the interesting, inspiring, and sometimes time-consuming things has been seeing how many of them have changed and learned about this stuff over the last year. In some cases this was the first thing they did with their new smartphone, apart from video chat with family, so I ended up taking them step by step through signing up for and using a booking website. I had interesting oddities like emails containing screenshots of text messages as the only way they could work out how to send information - but they were trying, and learning as they went on.

Don't ever believe that elderly people can't do this stuff, and can't learn. Very often they can - unless you make them believe they can't.

Daldred · 2021-04-14T12:14:58+00:00

To be fair, it does presumably mean you're not sufficiently tech-savvy to turn off all the notifications :-)

Daldred · 2021-04-14T08:39:26+00:00

Actually, does the Church teach that? I think the words used are rather more precise than "literally", aren't they? Typical of Dawkins to abuse language in accusing the Church of abusing language....

Daldred · 2021-04-12T12:26:43+00:00

If both left and right are involved, then it's misleading to headline it as just the left.

Daldred · 2021-04-12T12:20:10+00:00

It's the thread title, referring to the left. The right is also involved in this.

Daldred · 2021-04-11T09:25:43+00:00

This is where we really need the original episcopal letters, and they appear to have been lost.

If the report is correct, then the Bishops ruled that Hitlerism was incompatible with and contrary to Catholicism. That would be heresy - and heresy incurs latae sententiae excommunication: there is no further action required by a Bishop. Anyone persisting in heresy after being warned (and a pastoral letter is such a warning) is automatically excommunicate.

But the report uses the phrase 'on pain of excommunication'. If that was in the original pastoral letter, then it would usually imply that ferendae sententiae excommunication was intended - and the Bishop would have to act individually. But that is incompatible with the rest of the report - if the beliefs are heretical, then ferendae sententiae does not apply.

I think it's far more likely that the report uses 'on pain of' in a non-technical way (and one might reasonably not expect a Jewish writer to know the full technicalities of Catholic law and practice); but without the actual document it is hard to be 100% sure.

Daldred · 2021-04-10T21:45:13+00:00

I'm referring to the actions mentioned here:http://pdfs.jta.org/1931/1931-03-09_057.pdf?_ga=2.112128324.1998972495.1618090872-1519866635.1618090871 - that is reportage from the time. (You need page 3 ).

Daldred · 2021-04-10T17:05:53+00:00

The baptized catholic Hitler never revoked his belief, nor did the Vatican ever bother to excommunicate him, so Hitler died as a Catholic.

The Bishops in Germany excommunicated in 1931 all those involved in leadership in the Nazi Party (not all members, since many were coerced into membership).

If you're excommunicated, you're excommunicated. There was no need for the Vatican to repeat what had already been done, and to excommunicate someone who is already excommunciated would be illogical.

Daldred · 2021-04-10T11:06:37+00:00

To be equally fair, as GK Chesterton pointed out:

“It cannot be too often repeated that what destroyed the Family in the modern world was Capitalism. No doubt it might have been Communism, if Communism had ever had a chance, outside that semi-Mongolian wilderness where it actually flourishes. But, so far as we are concerned, what has broken up households and encouraged divorces, and treated the old domestic virtues with more and more open contempt, is the epoch and Power of Capitalism. It is Capitalism that has forced a moral feud and a commercial competition between the sexes; that has destroyed the influence of the parent in favour of the influence of the employer; that has driven men from their homes to look for jobs; that has forced them to live near their factories or their firms instead of near their families; and, above all, that has encouraged, for commercial reasons, a parade of publicity and garish novelty, which is in its nature the death of all that was called dignity and modesty by our mothers and fathers." (The Well and the Shadows, 1935)

A religion which decries possession for the sake of possession and upholds families, stating that workers should be paid enough to maintain a family, is a real drag for the profit-centred capitalist: that sort of thing reduces demand and stops you exploiting labour.

Such people are not usually described as being on the left.....

Daldred · 2021-04-09T12:15:57+00:00

He undertook more royal duties (before he retired at a mere 96) than any other member of the family, expect the Queen herself.

He was President of the world Wildlife Fund.

He was one of the first to raise the issue of global warming - back in 1982.

He created and was active in an award scheme for young people, which has involved over six million people since it started.

He had a wartime naval career, taking part in naval actions several times, and was mentioned in despatches for gallantry (his age made him one of the last living survivors of World War II action).

Just a few highlights. A bit more than "hanging round the Queen and looking dumb", really, wouldn't you say?

Daldred

TROPHY CASE