Response from Jon Gunderson on Comment 3 and 4

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Comment 3:

Source: http://www.w3.org/mid/20060621140004.F18FF66364@dolph.w3.org
(Issue ID: LC-838)

Part of Item:
Comment Type: substantive
Comment (including rationale for proposed change):

I recommend this requirement be moved to SC1. If descriptions of an image are SC1, then are not descriptions or titles of a web page of equal importance? This should be merged with requirements of 2.4.5 and that descriptions/titles should be \"unique\" for collections of a web resources as part of the success criteria.

See UIUC Web Accessibility Best Practices:
http://html.cita.uiuc.edu/nav/title.php


Proposed Change:

I recommend this requirement be moved to SC1 and merged with the requirements of 2.4.5.

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Response from Working Group:
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We have added "descriptive" to SC 2.4.3 and moved it to level A.

The success criterion does not require that titles be unique because the working group is concerned that requiring uniqueness will lead to titles that are not as descriptive and usable. It may be very difficult to create titles that are descriptive, unique, and reasonably short. For example, a Web page that generates titles dynamically based on its content might need to include part of the dynamic content in the title to ensure that it was unique.  We are also concerned that authors may make titles unique mechanically, such as by including a unique number in the title that is unrelated to the content. For these reasons, although we encourage unique titles in the techniques for this SC, we are not including uniqueness in the SC itself.

SC 2.4.5 has been moved to Level AA. It addresses descriptive headings and labels, which may need to be understood in context. While headings may not have sufficient descriptive power in isolation, when viewed in the context of a structured document, they do have sufficient descriptive power.

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Comment 4:

Source: http://www.w3.org/mid/20060621140642.A792066364@dolph.w3.org
(Issue ID: LC-839)

Part of Item:
Comment Type: substantive
Comment (including rationale for proposed change):

If descriptions of an image are SC1, then are not descriptions of a web page titles and headings of equal importance?

Proposed Change:

Change to SC1.  Consider merging with requirement of SC 2.4.3.

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Response from Working Group:
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SC 2.4.5 has been moved to Level AA. It addresses descriptive headings and labels, which may need to be understood in context. While headings may not have sufficient descriptive power in isolation, when viewed in the context of a structured document, they do have sufficient descriptive power.

Response from JRG:
Titling in our best practices in more than just the TITLE element.  It includes matching the TITLE content with H1 content on a web page.  This provides a machine verifiable way for testing for unique titles.  While automated tools can be easily fooled, the web developer obviously has to know they are doing it to get around this requirement.  I think titling is just as important as text equivalents for images.

I request that you add out titling requirement as a technique for creating accessible titles:
http://html.cita.uiuc.edu/nav/title.php

Tools for testing titling using TITLE and H1 and other accessibility features:

Firefox Accessibility Extension
http://firefox.cita.uiuc.edu

Functional Accessibility Evaluator
http://fae.cita.uiuc.edu

Jon Gunderson, Ph.D.
Director of IT Accessibility Services (CITES)
and 
Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology (DRES)

WWW: http://www.cita.uiuc.edu/
WWW: https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/jongund/www/

Received on Wednesday, 6 June 2007 14:17:31 UTC