LC-476

Roger Hudson does not agree with our fundamental approach to WCAG 2.0 which
is to keep the guidelines technology-neutral. His view is that the majority
of Web content will continue to be implemented in XHTML for the foreseeable
future and thinks we should include specific success criteria in the
guidelines themselves to cover the WCAG 1.0 checkpoints that are now all
mapped to SC 1.3.1. A secondary issue is that the HTML Techniques don't
require <th> elements for column and row headers in simple tables.

I found no old issues in Bugzilla for 1.3.1 that relate to this issue.

<proposed response>
If the normative guidelines include the HTML-specific success criteria,
then tables, forms, headings, etc. could only conform to WCAG 2.0 if they
are implemented in HTML. Tables, forms, headings, etc. implemented in any
other technology, such as PDF, could not conform to WCAG 2.0. It is
expected that many HTML developers will simply go directly to the HTML
Techniques instead of starting with the guidelines document.

With regard to the comment about why the Understanding WCAG 2.0 HTML
Techniques don't include the need to use TH for tables with single levels
of row and column headers, this requirement is covered in technique H51:
Using table markup to present tabular information
http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-WCAG20-TECHS-20060427/Overview.html#H51
</proposed response>

Andi

Received on Monday, 22 May 2006 18:21:29 UTC