Hi Rob et al:
I answered this very same question just last week for our own Information
Services division who are currently re designing their web sites.
BETSIE filters an existing page removing all graphical content and
re-ordering any tabular information in to a single column based on what it
feels is the most logical order for this information to be presented.
The number of people who benefit from a page which is a hundred percent text
with no graphical content at all is minimal. The vast majority of visually
impaired people do have some useful vision and do benefit from appropriate
use of graphics on a website particularly to help navigate the site as do
people with cognative impairments including Dyslexia. Some figures to
illustrate this point, in the academic year 2000 / 2001 702 students at uni
of Salford identified as disabled, of these 273 were Dyslexic, and 25 had a
visual impairment. It is likely that of those 25 at least 20 retained some
useful vision. So in this example no more than 5 of the 702 disabled
students would have significantly benefited from the existence of a text
only site. Put that up against total student numbers and you can see it is a
very small proportion.
A more useful feature of BETSIE is that it allows individual users to adjust
some display settings for the site on the fly, for instance it is possible
to select from a range of fonts colours and text sizes. This could however
be implemented without BETSIE relatively simply with the use of style sheets
(CSS).
BETSIE was written at a time when applications like screen readers could not
cope at all well with complex page layouts, and elements like frames and or
tables and so at that time was useful, however there isn't a modern screen
reader which can't handle most elements of a webpage extremely well.
For sites like the BBC which receive masses of hits from around the world
BETSIE was at the time of implementation a worthwhile tool and as it's
inplace is probably worth them retaining however I think it very unlikely
that any existing site would see a benefit in implementing BETSIE at the
current time and certainly would advise against any new site proposing to
use BETSIE to address it's access obligations.
Adrian Higginbotham,
ODL (Open Distance Learning)
tel: 0161 2952555
Email [log in to unmask]
Technology House, Lissadel Street, Salford, M6 6AP.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bracewell, Robert" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2002 11:42 AM
Subject: Web and Betsie
> Dear all,
>
> With all the info swimming about regarding accessible web design what
opinions
> do people have regarding 'Betsie' (anthropomorphisms rule) the access
programme
> available from the BBC's site. I have just had a look at the Sunderland
Web site
> (Council not Soccer team) and they have a Betsie driven text only site.
Has
> anyone else come across it, used it or have any experience of it?
>
> www.sunderland.gov.uk click the 'text only' link or go straight there via:
> http://betsie.sunderland.gov.uk/cgi-bin/parser.pl/www.sunderland.gov.uk/
>
> Rob
> ____________________________________________
>
> Rob Bracewell BA (Hon's)
> Access Officer
> Lancaster City Council
> Palatine Hall,
> Dalton Square,
> Lancaster,
> LA1 1PW
> Tel. 01524 582372
> Minicom. 01524 582317 (please use announcer)
> Fax. 01524 582323
>
>
>
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