Kate Bush's Site

Subject: Kate Bush's Site
From: Purple Foxx
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 10:07 AM

Today's Guardian reports that Kate Bush's website is a front runner for the National Library for the Blind's award for the most inaccessible website.
As a disability rights activist & inveterate admirer of La Bush I find this more than a little cringe-inducing.
Anyone else got an opinion?

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 10:24 AM

Blimey, I see what them blind lads mean. Tasteful and inaccessible, even if you could shoot the bird.

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Purple Foxx
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 10:38 AM

Actually most members/service users are lasses

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 10:46 AM

Can I ask a daft question? What use is a website to blind people anyway?

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Purple Foxx
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 10:54 AM

Don't confuse blindness (common) with total blindness(relatively rare) blind people desire & need information to the same degree as non-blind people.No question is "daft when it's genuine.

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Purple Foxx
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 10:57 AM

That should , of course,have read "daft".Bad brain day.

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Amos
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 11:00 AM

BEsides, totally blind people can arrange hardware and software to read any website which is provided with text equivalents. I know totally blind people who make a living working on computers with extensive special-needs software; they can have the pages read to them, read books and papers, etc. trough translations to speech.

A

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 02:07 PM

I think that's a great web-site... Nice tasteful design... a little arty (Much like Kate herself) A good compliment to her latest, fantastic CD

I suspect you could find a LOT of web sites that are coded without the blind in mind....

I find that pretty shrug-inducing....

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Purple Foxx
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 02:25 PM

Yes the album is fantastic (in both senses) & a lot of sites are coded without blind PEOPLE in mind, so being considered the worst is all the more disappointing.Your shrug has not brought the struggle for an inclusive society to a halt.Honest

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 02:33 PM

It wasn't intended to...

But nothing is ever going to include everyone.....

This gets great big Capital W "Whatever" in my book....

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 03:00 PM

A big capital W. Is that Wanker, Clint?

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: treewind
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 03:21 PM

I know of two mudcatters who are blind. There could well be more - Mudcat's a very disability-friendly site.

Kate's site is all one big Macromedia flash presentation.
Not only is it useless to blind people (who seem to get along fine with screen readers on the web when sites have normal text, and better still when the images are properly annotated with ALT tags) but building your web site that way won't get you any google ranking. KB's site only appears on Google because hundreds of other sites sites link to it, her name is in the URL, and there's only one pair of keywords needed in the search box.

Actually there is an HTML version of her site (which loads nice and quickly) but you don't find a link to that until you get past the all-Flash home page. DUH!

Anahata

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 03:24 PM

" Kate's site is all one big Macromedia flash presentation."

You say that like it's a bad thing

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: treewind
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 04:20 PM

...and I explain why.
A.

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 04:31 PM

Google Ranking?!?! How is Flash bad for Google ranking (in any way that matters) when there are PLENTY of ways around it?

Web sites like Kates, (multi-media/Flash and other animation tool driven) are going to become more and more popular and common... Better get used to it...

Or step aside

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: number 6
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 04:53 PM

I salute Kate for her website and for her artistry.

sIx

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 05:16 PM

I'll join you #6

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 07:09 PM

I like Kates bush and I think its in the right site.

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: sinpelo
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 07:40 PM

A degree of accessibility has been sacrificed for style but it has to be said: it's a beautiful website.

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: michaelr
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 09:03 PM

And points for this:

"Following publicity that there may be various problems with some of the US Sony/BMG releases which contain anti-piracy software, we're pleased to report that the US release of Aerial is completely unaffected - and is totally virus free." It's nice that she cares.

Has anyone here heard "Aerial"?

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 10:43 PM

How come Kate Bush never recorded Farewell To Nova Scotia?

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 11:21 PM

Cause she doesn't do covers.... she doesn't need to....

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Purple Foxx
Date: 23 Feb 06 - 02:22 AM

Aeriel is a very good album albeit slightly samey in places.
On the issue of anti-piracy software, as with the website ,Kate Bush is unlikely to have been the iniator so allocation of praise/blame is redundant.
As Kate Bush has recorded & released songs as diverse as "Lord of the Reedy River", "Rocket Man", "The Man I Love" & "Sexual Healing"
We can only conclude that either she wrote all of these or ClintonHammond is trying to pass of ill-informed opinion as established fact.Does anyone have any information on which of these scenarios is most probable?

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Wolfgang
Date: 23 Feb 06 - 07:37 AM

That website deserves the nomination.

There are worse websites out there but this website has a fine collection of no-nos from the point of view of usability. I wonder why some designers think there must be a tradeoff between artfulness and usability.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 23 Feb 06 - 09:00 AM

" ClintonHammond is trying to pass of ill-informed"
I reject your reality and substitute my own!

"Lord of the Reedy River"... This Woman's Work...   But I don't find the other three in her Discography...

A google look finds "Rocket Man" as a single... So popular it might never have made it to north america... either time she recorded it... "Same with The Man I Love"...

Kate's version of "Sexual Healing" was actually a track by Davey Spillane...

"fine collection of no-nos from the point of view of usability"
Funny how I and others were able to use it just fine....

Whatever... this thread can go piss up a rope...   The website is fine for 95% of the population... Kate wishes her fan base was that big too....   Fortunately she makes great music anyway...

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Purple Foxx
Date: 23 Feb 06 - 10:04 AM

Now now, Clinty baby you're getting all in a lather.
Out of deferrence to your opinion I have just double checked the sleeve notes for Kate's (excellent) interpretation of "Sexual Healing." she makes no mention of Davey Spillane. This being the case we must conclude that you are wrong or she is misremembering.
Their are those who would maintain that Kate's notes are good enough for 95% of the population & therefore should be good enough for you
but what the hell do they know?
I agree with you on the greatness of Kate's music.Like so much else though the gaps in your knowledge base undermine any attempt you make to sound authoritive.

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 23 Feb 06 - 10:26 AM

Kate's notes are not good enough! If you check out Davy Spillane's website you will find mention of his work with Miss bush.

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: Les from Hull
Date: 23 Feb 06 - 10:30 AM

Sexual healing written by Odell Elliott Brown Jr., Marvin P. Gaye, David Ritz. Davey is playing pipes on Kate's version.

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Feb 06 - 03:50 AM

Subject: RE: Kate Bush's Site
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Feb 06 - 07:16 AM

I see nothing wrong with Kate's website..just great as far as I'm concerned.