Re: Are accessibility guidelines defined for the blind?

aloha, peter!

the problems that you are describing, aren't strictly evaluation and repair 
problems, but an amalgam of poor authoring practices, poor authoring tools 
that support poor authoring practices, and user agent implementation 
decisions that compromise your (and my and hordes of others') access to 
information...

while the issues you described need to be brought into the consciousness of 
page authors and site designers, and while i appreciate your bringing these 
issues to the ER group, i'd strongly suggest that you also bring them to 
the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) working group, as many of 
the problems you describe have to do as much with the rendering/exposition 
of content by GUI browsers (i.e. the scrollbar suppression over-ride 
issue), which is the purview of the UA working group, than it does with 
evaluation and repair (unless you want to browse via proxies or repair and 
use a local copy of a page)

the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines working group's web space can be 
found at:
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/>
the eddress for the User Agent mailing list is:
<w3c-wai-ua@w3.org>
the User Agent mailing list's hypertext archive is located at::
<http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ua/>
(although i apologize in advance for the extremely poor interface which 
currently quote graces unquote the entrance ways to W3C mail list 
archives--an issue upon which i've given the systems team specific advice, 
including a few quick band-aids which desperately need to be applied while 
a better interface is developed, but none of my advice seems to have been 
heeded)

the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines is currently undergoing what is 
(hopefully) the last stage of the process before they are released as a W3C 
recommendation...  the Proposed Recommendation draft of UAAG can be found at:
<http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/PR-UAAG10-20000310/>
and the associated Techniques document can be found at:
<http://www.w3.org/TR/UAAG10-TECHS/>
there are 2 flavors of checklist for UAAG:
tabular: <http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/PR-UAAG10-20000310/uaag10-chktable.html>
llinear: <http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/PR-UAAG10-20000310/uaag10-chklist.html>

and, since these issues also need to be brought to the attention of the 
Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) working group, whose web 
space is located at:
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU/>
The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines were released as a W3C 
recommendation on 3 february 2000
<http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-ATAG10-20000203/>
The latest version of the Techniques for ATAG can be found at:
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU/WD-ATAG10-TECHS-20000421/>
there are 2 flavors of checklist for ATAG:
tabular: <http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-ATAG10-20000203/atag10-chktable.html>
llinear: <http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-ATAG10-20000203/atag10-chklist.html>

and, finally, since ATAG, in particular, has a very strong dependency upon 
the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), i'd also recommend making 
the issues you outlined in your posts to the ER mailing list there, as well...

WCAG web space is located at:
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/>
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines were released as a W3C 
Recommendation last may:
<http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505>
The original Techniques for WCAG can be found at:
<http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-TECHS/>
while a new, draft Techniques document can be found at:
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WD-WCAG10-TECHS-20000309/>
the Web Content Guidelines working group is currently rechartering and 
begining the process of revising WCAG 1.0 -- for more information consult:

WCAG 2.0 Requirements Document (draft): 
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/wcag20-req-20000419.html>
How to Join the WCAG working group: 
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/howto-join-wg.html>

thank you again for your valuable insights -- i earnestly hope that you air 
the concerns you voiced on the ER mailing list to the UA, AU, and WCAG 
mailing lists,

gregory.

Received on Tuesday, 2 May 2000 13:52:13 UTC