Re: Formal Recorded Complaint

On Wed, Aug 01, 2007 at 10:27:40AM +0200, Anne van Kesteren wrote:

> The problem Maciej and others are trying to point out, I think, is that 
> most authors will not think beyond the "graphical desktop browsers" 
> paradigm. In fact, they will only test in a single browser and that's that.

This is why we have the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines, the WAI
Education and Outreach working group, accessibility policies, etc., all of
which encourage thinking beyond the "graphical desktop browser" paradigm.

Stated differently, there are undoubtedly authors who care about these issues
and who are willing to write their content accordingly, as attendance at
accessibility-related conferences shows. There are also connections between
accessibility applications and those concerned with mobile devices.

Much of this, however, is somewhat beside the point, since spec developers
need to consider the full range of applications to which the language will be
put, and the communities that will use it, in designing the next version of
HTML. This involves thinking beyond the graphical desktop browser in writing
the spec; otherwise, the features needed to support rich non-visual
interfaces, including, among other things, assistive technologies, won't be
integral to the design of the language, which in turn places substantive
limits on what can be achieved by authoring tools, user agents, authors and
ultimately, users. That is, a properly designed language is a necessary
condition for quality user interfaces, which is why it is all the more
important to take different application scenarios into account in creating new
features and refining existing ones.

Received on Wednesday, 1 August 2007 09:54:41 UTC