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Comment by normalnorm

6 years ago

Perhaps, but in this case Google would just have to comply with the standards, which are not niche at all.

9 comments

normalnorm

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coldtea  6 years ago

The standards just describe what to do to make a standards compliant HTML page, what tags are allowed etc.

There are no standards that say that e.g. your page can't be all dependent on JS.

In other words, Google could be 100% standards compliant, and not work in Lynx.

  • normalnorm  6 years ago

    The grammar of the English language does not forbid one to write in Greek, but if you choose to write in Greek only, you will compromise on a lot of people being able to understand you.

    The same with standards, and you are misunderstanding on purpose.

    If Google chooses to not support simple HTML, then they are choosing to not support countless accessibility tools, and they know it. Some blind people will have a more miserable life because Google attained a de facto monopoly, but does not recognize some of the moral obligations that people like me feel should come with such a position. "With great power comes great responsibility", or maybe not.

    • joshuamorton  6 years ago

      Is lynx up to spec on HTML5 ARIA attributes? My understanding is that that's how accessibility is "supposed" to be done now, but if lynx hasn't been updated in a while, it might not support those HTML5 features, and thus not be standards compliant.

      (edit: Someone below notes that lynx appears to incorrectly parse valid HTML5 on the google homepage, so it sounds like Lynx's lack of updates are hurting here).

      2 replies →

    • coldtea  6 years ago

      >The same with standards, and you are misunderstanding on purpose.

      While I get what you mean, the use of the term "standards" just conflates an orthogonal issue.

      You can be 100% standards compliant and not readable on Lynx, or 100% standards compliant and readable on Lynx.

      Relying on JS is not some niche obscure corner or some bypass of the standards as per the English/Greek analogy. It's basically the norm for most SPAs today.

      The problem is that the standards are not compliant with Lynx (or rather that Lynx is not compliant with the standards).

      What you want is not Google to use the standards, but to use the part of the standard that is about simple, not JS dependent, HTML.

      1 reply →

    • jhall1468  6 years ago

      Google shouldn't be restricted to a subset of the available technology because a niche browser isn't updating to available technology. Yes, a side-effect of this is that the blind community using Lynx can't use Google. While unfortunate, it's also a tiny, tiny, TINY community.

      If you want to be upset, be upset with Lynx for falling behind. Or don't be upset and switch to JAWS, BRLTTY, Orca, etc. But the idea that anyone is supposed to support every possible browser is just silly.