It clear - from the accessibility audits of Website that I have done - that style sheets do not get used correctly by designers (or by WYSWYG design packages). CSS style attributes are used often to replace proper markup - and this just causes further problems, e.g. style attributes are often used to make text look like headers - by making the text bold and a bit bigger than the main bodytext. This is bad because you end up with documents with no headings or subheadings - losing valuable document structure. This is particularly bad for people who make use of smart screen readers - the type that can present an overview of a Web page by pulling out all the headings.

Using style sheets for presentation is a good thing - but they need to be used properly or the benefits are lost.

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2002