Re: [Lynx-dev] reaching gmail in basic html?

[David Woolley]

On 11/11/2019 22:12, Bela Lubkin wrote:
> Note that in US law, and I believe EU and probably many other
> jurisdictions, there are legal requirements for software accessibility.
> The positions you describe seem very likely to be in violation (but I am
> not at all a lawyer...)

Law is the only way that companies in the normal market will consider 
accessibility.  Even if the OP weren't product, rather than customer, 
companies would apply an 80/20 rule, if operating in a free market, and 
ignore the 20% of the market that is most difficult to service.

However, even with law, and even on W3C's own accessibility forums, most 
companies and consultants consider that "works with JAWS" is a 
sufficient test of accessibility.  I found it interesting that someone 
said that JAWS wasn't much used even on Windows, but it is the standard 
that businesses use.

Programs like elinks don't implement Javascript even close to fully, but 
these days a standard, full implementation, is considered an acceptable 
target by content developers, even those interested in accessibility.  I 
think early version of the W3C Web Content Accessibilty Guidelines 
discouraged scripting, but the current ones consider it acceptable.

The only real way of getting a text mode browser to work for everything 
designed for that environment, and with accessibility in mind, would 
probably be to start with Firefox, etc., and rewrite its final rendering 
for character cell displays.  Even that might not be enough.

It disappoints me, but consultants have to come up with solutions that 
fit in with their customers' wants, not just consumer needs.