RE: [DRAFT] Heartbeat poll - update 2

Ian Hickson 
> 
> 
> I think I may be starting to understand your position.
> 
> Are you saying that for you, it is more important that HTML5 not
> contradict other W3C specifications, than it be that HTML5 address
> accessibility problems with the HTML language?
> 

In a nutshell:  HTML WG's "job" is to write a technical spec.  WAI's "job"
is to provide authoring guidance regarding accessibility issues. 

Ian's Draft Spec says: "Authors should not specify the summary attribute
on table elements." 

WAI's WCAG 2 says: "Use (Using) the summary attribute of the table element
to give an overview of data tables"

(Confused author - "who should I listen to?")

Who *should* she listen to?

I maintain that she should listen to WAI, because it is their job to
provide the guidance, not yours.  You needs to stop contradicting WAI,
even if you have proof that WAI might need to update their guidance (a
questionable supposition, but I will leave that for *discussion*, and
further leave open the possibility that they should.  In fact, probably
should, as the techniques also do not talk about ARIA).

I believe however the contradictory information *harms* the overall
outreach aspect of teaching people how to create accessible web content,
and I speak from the position of one who actually does that for a living,
and have been doing so for close to a decade.  THE MESSAGE WE SEND TO THE
WORLD'S WEB DEVELOPERS MUST BE CONSISTENT!

If the WAI documents need to be re-examined, then there is a process to do
that [1] and I have further offered to provide whatever assistance I can
to ensure that these proposals get a timely hearing [2]. 

JF

[1] "Techniques for WCAG 2.0 submission form: This form provides a
mechanism for those interested in submitting techniques to submit content
for consideration in Techniques for WCAG 2.0."
http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/TECHS-SUBMIT/ 


[2] "There have been complaints of slow response times from PFWG to which
I have 
offered to approach Judy Brewer directly in an attempt to break any log
jam."
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2009Aug/0090.html

Received on Tuesday, 4 August 2009 08:14:49 UTC