[Online Overview] What is Web Accessibility? slide

For discussion at EOWG meeting today 4 April 2003:

Proposed text for slide follows. This does not solve all concerns raised to 
date -- I am not sure that we will be able to do so and reach consensus -- 
but attempts to improve on a slide on which we had considerable consensus, 
by incorporating some comments and suggestions which have been raised.

----------------

[PROPOSAL]

What is Web Accessibility?

Web accessibility means access to the Web by everyone, regardless of 
disability.

Web accessibility includes:
- Web sites and Web applications
         -- that are perceivable, operable, navigable, and understandable 
by people with disabilities;
- Web browsers and media players
         -- that can be used effectively by people with disabilities, and
         -- that work well with assistive technologies that some people 
with disabilities use to access the Web;
- Web authoring tools
         -- that are usable by people with disabilities, and
         -- that support production of accessible Web content and Web sites;
- evolving Web technologies
         -- not only HTML and CSS, but XML, the Semantic Web, and more
         -- that support accessibility requirements of people with 
disabilities.

---------------------

[BACKGROUND]

We need to resolve the question of what to put on the "What is Web 
Accessibility?" slide that we decided, in January, to add near the 
beginning of the Online Overview of the Web Accessibility Initiative:
         http://www.w3.org/Talks/WAI-Intro/

We've discussed it at several of EOWG meetings over the past few months, 
and were close to agreement on an approach. Then concerns were raised which 
we discussed at length in our teleconference on 7 February 2003:
         http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/2003/0207.html#overview

After extensive discussion, we decided to keep the proposed slide largely 
the same, though shifting the focus slightly in certain areas if possible, 
including:
         - be more forwards-compatible with regard to evolving technologies;
         - emphasize a more interactive Web;
         - try to use terminology that speaks better to the technical 
community while not leaving behind non-technical audiences.

Since then, several people have offered different ideas and/or new 
versions, some of which have been discussed on the list, including 
Sailesh's suggestion:
         http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-eo/2003JanMar/0056.html
but none of which seem to have gained broad acceptance.

Some of these build on Al's email, and show how differently we could 
approach this:
         http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-eo/2003JanMar/0075.html
for instance this excerpt:
         "A Web which offers equal access to people with disabilities is 
one where the performance on the [above] three axes: complete delivery of 
information, complete access to outcomes, and effective command of the 
process -- is subtantially the same for people with disabilities and for 
people without disabilities."

While on one level this seems to be a much more comprehensive & effective 
answer to the question of what is Web accessibility, it is abstract enough 
that I do not know if a lay (non-technical) reader would easily grasp it -- 
and we want to keep readers engaged past the first few slides.

Comments on the above are welcome.

- Judy


-- 
Judy Brewer    +1.617.258.9741    http://www.w3.org/WAI
Director, Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
MIT/LCS Room NE43-355, 200 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA,  02139,  USA

Received on Friday, 4 April 2003 01:13:03 UTC