Lift Text Transcoder

I was recently faced with the prospect of LIFT Text Transcoder being considered for use where I work. Having seen what this new accessibility software from UsableNet can do does, and the cost, I had my reservations. Not being sure, I got in touch with Jeffrey Zeldman, who wrote about it on Tuesday, 18th November.

Jeffrey copied Joe Clark in on his reply, which is a good move, as Joe is an access expert and author of Building Accessible Websites. Their opinion, with which I agree, was that it is an unwise and unnecessary tool to deploy.

So, I think Lift Text Transcoder is A Bad Thing for the following reasons:

1. Text-only web sites do not provide equivalent access for disabled people.
2. It assumes that partially-sighted people have no use for design.
3. It removes one of the major incentives for refactoring Web sites to use Standards-Compliant markup and CSS.
4. It is unnecessary – access improvements happen under the hood (in the markup), and it is possible to layer presentation on top.
5. It encourages a form of segregation – disabled people are shunted off to a separate corner of the web site. “Use the back door, please”

So, for the second time, I effected change. For it was I who alerted Jeffrey to the existence of LIFT Text Transcoder. And I’m glad I did—someone has to stand up and point out when something is stupid. I’ll leave you with a quote from Joe:

This text-only utility is widely seen as the stupidest thing to come along all year. And people are falling for it!
Your site can itself be made accessible. You don’t need a Ladies’ Auxiliary to which you shunt disabled visitors.