Casio - Missing the Point
I’m supposed to be on holiday but after browsing around the UK and Eire Casio website for a new G-Shock - the only brand I’ve never broke, I had to file a “Crusade” article. I made the mistake of visiting the accessibility page you see.
Needless to say the website is tables-based with inline styles and JavaScript rollovers, as to be expected for 1999 
but the accessibility page takes the biscuit here.
Apparently, if I’m partially sighted, I should use Internet Explorer and download some software called “WorksView” available from their site. I don’t know the technical details, but I first get an Active X warning, then a warning from my Firewall. Who’s the customer here? I want to see the content without having to jump through hoops and make technical decisions thank you.
Once installed (no browser restart required) the IE window is split in half along the horizontal axis. The top half contains the original website and the bottom half is a magnified version. But get this, you navigate by dragging your mouse around the small website. It’s like using VNC remote desktopping on your own PC - damned confusing.
By adopting a web standards approach, not only would they have a leaner, faster and easier to maintain website they’d go a long way towards offering real accessibility. By spending time (or money on a contractor) they could offer alternative Cascading Style Sheets instead of this “WorksView”.
Try it for yourself at the Casio - UK and Eire website.
April 5th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
Thank you for your comments.
We are aware of the issues and a brand new CSS version
of the Casio site is being built from the ground up as we speak. This will conform
to check point 2 on the web accessibility guidelines V 2 and will feature a text
only version.
Let us know what you think of the new site once it is launched.
WorksUnit