Re: Accessibility is for everyone (was : Use of headers and summary attributes )

On 4-May-07, at 11:47 AM, Charles McCathieNevile wrote:

> Accessibility is a fundamental requirement at W3C.

<snip />

> Anyone who doesn't know what WAI does might like to think about how  
> widely known and translated the Web Content Accessibility  
> Guidelines are as an indication of whether this stuff is actually  
> important. Like any other specification, the application is far  
> from perfect, but if you want to contribute to HTML you should  
> either understand something about accessibility or realise that  
> accessibility is one very important part of the modern web and make  
> sure the group is getting review and input from people who do  
> understand it, and taking that into account.

It took me a while to figure out that I wasn't the only one in here  
who would be lost in the technical jargon employed, even though I am / 
supposed/ to be an expert at using HTML. Those of us who have an  
expertise with accessiblity should keep an eye out for those  
elements, while others who master the code more indepth should keep  
on doing what they're already doing - that would be pushing the  
concepts to their limits and seeing if they hold true.

The real damage is not done by someone asking whether or not we  
should make HTML 5 more presentational than structural, or whether we  
should drop or keep such and such attributes. The real damage is  
staying silent when we should jump in and defend what we know is  
worth keeping or protecting.

I'm with you on this Chaals. Though I'd sure like more people to  
understand and care about accessibility, I also want people in here  
to focus on the mecanics of HTML because we already seem to be at  
least half a dozen who can defend the accessibility turf. If they can  
do both, then that's great but otherwise...

Still it's surprising to realize that there's no real cohesion  
between the different standards being developed in here W3C until  
conformance managing comes into play.

--
Denis Boudreau,
Directeur

WebConforme / AccessibilitéWeb
1751 rue Richardson, bureau 3.501
Montréal (Qc), Canada  H3K 1G6

Téléphone : +1 514-448-2650
Télécopieur : +1 514.667.2216
dboudreau@webconforme.com
blackberry@webconforme.com
http://www.webconforme.com/

======// À méditer //=======
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Received on Friday, 4 May 2007 21:22:21 UTC