Re: my first contribution to the techniques with attachments

At 11:45 AM +0000 3/1/01, Sean B. Palmer wrote:
>  > <b>Represent all content, not just the text.</b>
>
>How about <em>Represent all content, not just the text.</em> :-)
>
>Another good technique is not to use stylesheets to display hard data.
>I n other words, don't do stuff like:-
>
>      a:before { content: "Link: "; }

That's not "hard data" since the information is already contained
in the markup and accessible.  (The presence of an A tag is
trivially easy to detect.)  Thus the above really is "presentation"
more than "hard data".

ALSO, it is very important to make clear the distinction between
user CSS and author CSS.  If you make a general rule, you can
VERY easily confuse people who learn, for example, the mantra that
"you shouldn't use stylesheets with content: in it."

That will mess them up if they are creating stylesheets designed to
be used by the user, as well as any case where the user is sent
a specifically tailored CSS file -- such as if they choose a
stylesheet from a set (a la the HWG's somewhat broken stylesheet
selector on aware.hwg.org) or if they are sent one based on their
device characteristics and preferences (a la the Edapta system from
Reef).

My caution here is that it's very easy to make "techniques" which
if they appear absolute can be misinterpreted.  Remember that the
target audience for a techniques document is always "someone who
can't intrinsically figure out what to do from just reading
principles of accessibility" -- i.e. a "typical web user."

--Kynn
-- 
Kynn Bartlett <kynn@reef.com>
Technical Developer Liaison
Reef North America
Tel +1 949-567-7006
_________________________________________
ACCESSIBILITY IS DYNAMIC. TAKE CONTROL.
_________________________________________
http://www.reef.com

Received on Thursday, 1 March 2001 09:07:03 UTC