Interesting times in the “blogosphere” this week. Markus Mielke from the IE Blog may have released details on the CSS changes for Internet Explorer 7 but the hot topic has to be the “designer backlash” from Roger Johansson’s post “Light text on dark background vs. readability“.
First Veerle pitches in with a counter post “My view on light text on dark background vs. readability” and then the next follow-up came from Jeff Croft’s “Has accessibility been taken too far?” post. To be honest I didn’t get overly upset. I think he was playing devil’s advocate with himself at times but there were many supportive comments from designers—well, people love a bandwagon right? (the wagon had already been through Roger’s blog). I took the time to read all the comments that were, by and large, civil and I rather enjoyed the fact that a nerve had been struck and people, a lot of people, were now discussing the issue. We all have views but I really do believe you have to listen to someone else’s (and from the other side of the fence) to truly understand an issue and tackle it one way or the other—at the very least you walk away having learned something new about the world. Anyway, I digress. In a nutshell I’m glad everyone is discussing this—it pushes our understanding and knowledge along.
Other blogs who have published their feelings on the matter include:
- Mike Cherim’s “Not Quite Black and White” post and later comment.
- Jon Gibbins (dotjay) “Some Views on Contemporary Web Accessibility“.
- Joe Dolson’s “Accessibility has NOT been taken too far“.
- and more! (sorry, not enough hours in the day…)
Grab some popcorn and a beverage of choice and enjoy the show(down).
This sort of stimulating conversation is good. It gets people thinking. I’m one of those who straddles both sides. As you know I’m a big supporter of the accessible, usable web, yet to me design is just as important to proper website development. After all, I get next to nobody hiring me and specifying that I make and accessible usable site, but they all want something that looks great. The creative challenge is marrying the two.
Design touches our lives daily. Often design enhances usability. A fine example of this is the cork screw. It’s worth thinking about next time you open a bottle of wine. The lowly cork screw has come a long way: enhanced design has married the device’s beauty and newer ones are so much easier to use. The best of both worlds. The needs of the web are no different than the rest of the world we live in.