It's hard to say with any certainty that any part of the world is not now connected to the Internet by some roundabout route. In addition, we had subscribers on the islands of Reunion and Vanuatu, which didn't show up on the map. While the number of people who can only access plain text grows, Web masters are tempted to base their page design on the latest and greatest non-standard extensions to html and to include ever more glitzy graphics and video and audio effects, neglecting the needs of the technologically handicapped. As technology advances with 3D presentation of images and virtual reality, the issue of access for those without these capabilities will rise again and again. The designers of Web pages should go out of their way to continue to make plain-text versions of their material available when they upgrade to the latest and greatest graphical presentation method.
Many sites already provide a choice of graphics or text-only on the first screen.
And some design their pages with the understanding that users may be connecting with Lynx, a character-cell browser. We need to encourage more sites to do that now, and to continue that practice as graphical technology advances. In the next chapter, we'll consider the blind, who have similar needs for plain text presentation of Internet material. Click here for details .