Accessible doesn't have to mean plain & boring

I see where you’re coming from, Bob. In my personal opinion making your website compatible with NN4 and IE4 users is optional. So few people use them (now less than 1%) and it’s free to upgrade. I do think that once a browser becomes so outdated it’s the responsibility of its user to upgrade (for free!). Anyway, that’s my two cents.

With regards to accessibility for blind and disabled people, well they don’t have a choice about their disability. They can’t just upgrade so that the Internet is easier for them to use. I know your quote of 1% is made up, but I’ve seen statistics suggesting that up to 20% of Internet users face accessibility problems on websites. For example, in the UK there are 8.6million (14% of the population) registered disabled people. Check out my article on SitePoint which quotes lots of statistics like this.

But I’m glad you agree with my general point. Accessibility is not brain science  - it just involves some creativity in working with your current design. And I agree with you too about the over-designing. Websites aren’t for designers to showcase their skills, they’re there for real people to use them.

Trenton

P.S. All those websites I mentioned are fully compliant with Priority 1 checkpoints and pass the many of Priority 2 and 3 too.