DreamHost's web site is invalid and inaccessible

I've been trying to register a complaint with DreamHost regarding their website, but my words seem to be falling on deaf ears. I was hoping that someone here might help me figure out how to explain the issue to customer support in a clearer fashion so that it can be taken care of. I have pasted below my customer support requests and the response I received.

Here's my first message:

In reply to:

Your website redesign is suffering from a number of usability problems.

First and foremost, it is not accessible to users who may be blind or have partial/poor sight. For example, your left-hand side bar uses extremely small pixel fonts (that is, graphics) for the text input labels such as "Password" and "Contact Support". In addition to being quite difficult to read (they are nearly microscopic on my 30-inch display), screen readers for the blind are not able to read these graphics. Whoever designed your website did not bother to use a very simple fix -- adding an "alt" attribute to the img tag -- to remedy this problem. For more information about web accessibility, please refer to the following links:

http://alistapart.com/articles/wiwa/
http://www.w3.org/WAI/gettingstarted/Overview.html

Another problem is that your website redesign is not valid HTML. The W3 Validator
program detects nearly 200 syntax errors on your front page alone! To see what I mean, go
to this site:

http://validator.w3.org/

Then enter "http://dreamhost.com" in the "Validate by URL" field.

I hope you will seriously consider fixing these issues. Thank you.

DreamHost's response:

In reply to:

Thanks for writing! We appreciate your comments and are always looking for ways to further optimize our site for all viewers. In the meantime, you can always enlarge the font within your browser by holding the control key and scrolling your mousewheel.

Thanks again for your feedback.

Thanks!
Brett

And my reply:

In reply to:

Apparently my request was not understood. Let me try again.

The labels on the sidebar of DreamHost's website are *not* fonts. They are graphics. Enlarging the text size in the browser makes no difference to the size of these labels. Try it yourself and you will see.

Furthermore, the *size* of the graphics is not the issue here. They could be ten thousand pixels tall, but if you're blind, you still can't read them. Note that blind users have screen readers that are able to speak the text of a web page, but because your website uses graphics instead of text for those labels, you're preventing screen readers from functioning properly.

As I said before, there is a simple fix for this. The addition of "alt" attributes to the images would allow screen readers to speak the graphical labels.

In fact, "alt" attributes are *required* for valid HTML. But your website shows nearly 200 syntax errors, ignoring the standards that help make the web viewable by everyone, not just those who happen to use a particular browser. So not only is your website invalid, you have also made it inaccessible to blind users.

If you're still confused about what I'm saying, there are a number of books that do a better job than I can of explaining the issue. I invite your web developer(s) to read the following:

"Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance"
"Constructing Accessible Web Sites"
"Web Accessibility for People With Disabilities"

Please let me know what you think.

In reply to:
Please let me know what you think.

I completely agree with you. The DreamHost site is hopelessly inaccessible. It may be a 2006 design, but there are 1997 techniques behind it.

Why are you worrying about it? Is it your website? Are your customers affected by it? If not, then it seems to me that you are just being a busybody, fussing about something that is none of your business. This is like fussing about whether or not your neighbor's yard has dandelions, whether their car is washed to your specs, that their kid brushes regularly with Crest, or whether or not they go to a church you approve of.

I'm very sure Dreamhost is aware of their website and its limitations. Personally, it is a HELL of alot better than most of the ugly, impossible to navigate domain hosting service websites around the net.

Get a life.

In reply to:
Get a life.

Perhaps the person who originally posted, or someone that person knows, is unable to properly make use of the DreamHost site due to the accessibility concerns discussed. As paying customers, we have a right to expect DreamHost to make every effort to ensure that their site is accessible to us.

If you have nothing useful to offer this discussion, then perhaps you are just being a busybody, fussing about something that is none of your business.

> hoping that someone here might help me figure out how to explain the issue to customer support in a clearer fashion so that it can be

I think your explanation is quite clear.

If you're serious, and it seems you are, you might submit it as an Abuse issue and try to get Jeff or Honcho attention. If you're lucky, maybe they'll notice it here.

With all due respect to Brett and the permanently overloaded Support folks, you got the 'ole "Thanks, but no thanks" brush off [Insert pic of folks playing games, destroying electronic devices, etc. with caption "Oh, blah, another hundred support requests." :-) ]

You could also put in a Suggestion, if they're still doing those.

You could mention the Target suit and California Disabled Persons Act, etc., but it seems like DreamHost would want to set a better example anyway.

However, they did focus on hosting instead of site development for a reason... :-)

They did include at least a few alt's, BTW. :-)

What I Like About

Seems to me you both have no problems at all if you made it here. Busybodies all. Umm...there are kids starving in the world. You'd make better use of your time clicking to help the hungy. It's free and is a better use of time. Try http://www.thehungersite.com

> clicking to help the hungy

Or even better, in context, Dreamhost's matching charity, currently includes: "Santa's Helpers' mission is to help underprivileged children and their families experience Christmas the way we did as kids."

What I Like About

Excellent suggestion. I think I'll add that to The Deepening too.

In reply to:
You'd make better use of your time clicking to help the hungy

How does one cure "hungyness" then, zentao? I am unfamiliar with the affliction.

In reply to:
Busybodies all.

Clearly you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, so perhaps you should confine your comments to matters in which you have some sort of feeble understanding. Web accessibility is very important, and in some cases (like any kind of government-involved site) legally required. With a minor investment in accessibility, DreamHost would be able to improve the usability and performance of their site.

In reply to:
Why are you worrying about it? Is it your website?

I am not blind, but I may one day be, and I hope that web developers take the simple steps necessary to make their sites more accessible to those who cannot see. I can't make the entire web accessible, but as a DreamHost customer, perhaps I can change this one website and make its developers aware of the issue.

In reply to:
Are your customers affected by it? If not, then it seems to me that you are just being a busybody, fussing about something that is none of your business. This is like fussing about whether or not your neighbor's yard has dandelions, whether their car is washed to your specs, that their kid brushes regularly with Crest, or whether or not they go to a church you approve of.

Please do not mock this issue. Disability is not something to take lightly. I have friends who are blind, and I once worked with a man who was legally blind and had to use a screenreader for all of his computer work. Unfortunately, he was unable to view many websites because web developers ignore the needs of blind users.

In reply to:
I'm very sure Dreamhost is aware of their website and its limitations.

Judging by Brett's response, they are not aware. He suggested I resize the fonts in my browser, which shows a lack of understanding of the issue.

In reply to:
I'm very sure Dreamhost is aware of their website and its limitations. Personally, it is a HELL of alot better than most of the ugly, impossible to navigate domain hosting service websites around the net.

You are not understanding my concern. I don't care whether the site is ugly or beautiful or easy to navigate or not. That's not the problem at all. I only care whether the site is accessible.

In reply to:
Get a life.

Think about what would happen if one day an accident or disease leaves you blind. Would you continue to hold this attitude?

Tell you what. Go over geocities and start there. Then go to angelfire.com and continue there. Then....

As to accessability, seems to me that since you are unafflicted, you are indeed just being a busybody, stirring things just because. Waste of life, that.

As to the hungryness issue to the poster immediately above you, a click a day helps feed the hungry, so that helps. This doesn't...but then, I know, kindness is so very out of style, now, isn't it? How about volunteering at your local food bank or at the meals for the hungry in your community? Doing that already, are you?

As to my disabilities? Well, they are mine, and I do have one, so you are barking at the wrong cat.

In reply to:
As to my disabilities? Well, they are mine, and I do have one, so you are barking at the wrong cat.

Since you missed the "hungyness" joke, perhaps your major disability is an inability to read properly. Or maybe it's just being a busybody yourself. Or maybe it is just because you are a bit embarrassed.

I'm not embarrassed at all. Thank you, but zentao.com hasn't been worked on for years and years and, quite honestly, I could care. It isn't my problem. It's on someone else's plate of to-do's when someone has some extra time...which none of us do. Has been for quite some time.

So why am I surfing these forums? Looking for an answer to a question. And I found it. Amazing. So I'm going to go back to my own plate of to-do's and you continue to have a great, non-productive, irritable-bowel syndrome life.

> Tell you what. Go over geocities and start there. Then go to angelfire.com and continue there. Then....

Or better, in context, start here, where we are now:

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
-- Theodore Roosevelt

What I Like About

In reply to:
zentao.com hasn't been worked on for years and years

In reply to:
I'm not embarrassed at all.

But it seems you are. I can tell, because it appears you were annoyed enough to use the contact form on my website to send me a message:

In reply to:
Title: Ooz
Name: Wuggles
Organization: snuggles
Email: toscjessey@imugly.com

Comments: Ooo look it's another blog Wow. Exciting.

Presumably, you thought that filling in a fake email address would cover your tracks, but you forgot about the IP address. It resolves to Post Falls, ID - only 50 miles south of Dover, ID (where your website is registered). Of course, it could just be a startling coincidence.

DreamHost's web site is invalid and inaccessible