Re: Technologies Relied Upon (Step 2d) - my epiphany

Hi Richard,

Sorry for the slow response on this.

The WCAG 2.0 definition for "relied upon" is:
[[
the content would not conform if that technology is turned off or is not 
supported
]] http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#reliedupondef


There is no real distinction between public and internal websites. For 
example, some websites will *not* be accessible if you would turn off 
CSS support in your browser, or if your browser would not support CSS. 
It primarily depends on how the website was developed. If the website 
uses absolute progressive enhancement then it may work without CSS or 
JavaScript or whatever technology on top of HTML. Often this is might 
not be technically possible (or just too difficult to realize).

In Step 2.b the evaluators assess which technologies are being used in a 
way that they are relied upon as being supported by the browser (for 
example the video formats, WAI-ARIA, HTML5, etc). They will then need to 
use the appropriate techniques (and consider accessibility support) to 
evaluate the content (in Step 4) depending on the technologies used.


Hope this is clearer now and happy to get suggestions for how the text 
in Step 2.b can be improved.

Thanks,
   Shadi


On 6.6.2013 13:53, RichardWarren wrote:
> Hi, I think I have, at last, understood the purpose of this step – sorry to have been a bit thick – but please correct me if I am wrong.
>
> # Public websites must, by default, rely on HTML (e.g videos need a text caption, images a text alternative etc.). This ensures that the site is publicly accessible.
> # Private sites – such as company intranets – can rely on specific technologies (other than HTML) provided employees and other registered users have, or are are provided with, the relevant tools. So a training Intranet that requires Flash does not require text alternatives for the Flash animation – so long as the Flash is built in an accessible way and all users have Flash enabled machines.!
>
> So step 2d is only needed if the site being evaluated is NOT a public web site. (But you might want to say something like “this is a public site that relies on HTML versionxxx”.) For an Intranet etc. we would use Step 2d to list the other technologies required (and to be tested for accessibility). We will need to specify the precise version of this additional software for the benefit of future evaluations etc.
>
> If I am correct – could we re-word this section so that “thickos” like me can get it right first time
>
> Regards
>
> Richard Warren
> Technical Manager
> Website Auditing Limited (Userite)
> http://www.website-accessibility.com
>

-- 
Shadi Abou-Zahra - http://www.w3.org/People/shadi/
Activity Lead, W3C/WAI International Program Office
Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group (ERT WG)
Research and Development Working Group (RDWG)

Received on Friday, 14 June 2013 07:43:06 UTC