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hi all the miracle of the World Wide Web [now all of 9 years old] has been its accessibility and readability of its pages by virtually all computer platforms and operating systems the miracle of the InterNet [now all of 30 years old] has been its accessibility and instant world wide communication limited to text and to the major 'platforms' as part of the "Parkinson's Information Exchange Network" we have been reaping the benefits of the latter miracle for nigh on to 7 years now viz, imho, the InterNet communication miracle is in front of your very eyes this very minute as you read my words to you the fact that i can 'say' them [anyone has the ability to 'say' anything here] the fact that you can 'hear' them [anyone has to ability to 'listen' to anything here] the fact that we can have this cyber/discussion/debate/exchange within literally seconds around the globe about an ethereal 'place' that we can all 'visit' and 'talk' about as we know only too well InterNet communication has its limits in terms of being restricted to plain text only "cross-platform communication" as the nerds say was a real problem and a real limitation [that's where the use of the "apples and oranges" [or maybe lemons?] metaphor is possibly more appropriate] enter Hyper-Text-Markup-Language in 1991 witness the birth of the World Wide Web section of the InterNet and its unprecedented growth the appeal of the WWWeb and HTML is its ability to add 'bells and whistles' graphics, aound files, video files, animation, etc etc etc to that backbone structure of plain text WWWeb designers are naturally drawn to the newest 'gizmos' on the block however, in order to maintain the 'universal accessibility' aspect of the WWWeb miracle WWWeb designers are advised by the WWWeb powers-that-be: W3C - The World Wide Web Consortium <a href="http://www.w3.org/">http://www.w3.org/</a> to follow the guidelines in their Web Accessibility Initiative to ensure that their work can be translated/read/rendered by all platforms/computers/internet-appliances be they wireless-cell-web-tv-dick-tracy watches or text-to-speech readers for the visually impaired or speech-to-text writers for the typing impaired or ... you name it! [if you can predict this techno whirlwind we live in] Michael J. Fox's website: <a href="http://www.michaeljfox.com"> http://www.michaeljfox.com</a> does not meet those guidelines nor does the Parkinson Action Network's website: <a href="http://www.parkinsonaction.org"> http://www.parkinsonaction.org</a> nor do lots of other sites to varying degrees on my own 'links' pages the links: <a href="http://www.geocities.com/janet313/pienet/6th/> http://www.geocities.com/janet313/pienet/6th/</a> as well as on murray's wwweb resources pages: <a href="http://www.geocities.com/janet313/pienet/wwweb/> http://www.geocities.com/janet313/pienet/wwweb/</a> so, yes, there's a speed bump or two out here on the cyber/frontier/dirt-path/highway/ BUT and that's a BIG BUT that makes cyberia no less miraculous and the kudos to mjf and pan no less deserved!! their sites just need a few adjustments and adaptations and alternatives added, and bob's yer uncle, 100% universal access by all platforms, all people and all parkies it's nuthin to fight about but it IS sumthin to excite about! janet janet paterson 53 now / 41 dx / 37 onset 613 256 8340 / PO Box 171 Almonte Ontario K0A 1A0 Canada visit my website "a new voice" at: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/