Re: Post #1 of Proposal for a REstructuring and ReOrienting the WCAG 2.0 Guidelines

The following is the result of a sub-group meeting at the face to face
meeting at CSUN on March 24th. This sub-group was formed to discuss and
respond to Gregg's proposal. It is still very much a work in progress and
will be discussed at today's working group meeting.

Conformance scheme groups:

   1. Interoperability and compatibilty with accessibility aids, features,
   and services.
   2. Flexible presentation that accomodates more people using mainstream
   user agents, without requiring accessibility aids, features, or
   services.
   3. Specialized design to target a particular population or populations.

We started out thinking about rewording the checkpoints to be
"results-based" instead of "implementation-based"; i.e. the checkpoint will
describe the result, not how you implement it. This allows for the
implementation to be done by the author, a service, or the AT. We only
reworded checkpoint 1.1.

ACTION: Reword the other checkpoints to be results-based.

With the above conformance groups in mind, analysis of the checkpoints and
success criteria in the current working draft yielded the following:

Guideline 1 - Perceivable. Ensure that all intended function and
information can be presented in form(s) that can be perceived by any user -
except those aspects that cannot be expressed in words.

   Checkpoint 1.1 For all non-text content that can be expressed in words,
   provide a text equivalent of the function or information the non-text
   content was intended to convey.
      Group 1 and reworded as: For all non-text content that can be
      expressed in words, a text equivalent of the function or information
      the non-text content was intended to convey is available to assistive
      aids, features, or services.

   Checkpoint 1.2 Provide synchronized media equivalents for time-dependent
   presentations.
      Group 1: Closed captioning
      Group 2: Open captioning

   Checkpoint 1.3 Make all content and structure available independently of
   presentation.
      Group 1

   Checkpoint 1.4 Emphasize structure through presentation(s), positioning,
   and labels.
      Group 2

   Checkpoint 1.5 Ensure that foreground content is easily differentiable
   from background for both auditory and visual presentations.
      Group 1: Ability to turn off visual and audio backgrounds
      Group 2: Visual or audio background is easitly distinguishable from
      the foreground content. <conflicts with Group 3 criteria for audio>
      Group 3: there are no background pictures or patterns behind
      foreground content
      Group 3: background sounds are at least ?? db lower than foreground
      content. <conflicts with Group 2 criteria for audio>

   Checkpoint 1.6 Provide information needed for unambiguous decoding of
   the characters and words in the content.
      Group 1: unicode
      Group 1: specifying the language for text that is not in the primary
      language of the page
      Group 1: identify abbreviations and acronyms
      Group 1: a standard mechanism is provided for disambiguation of
      symbols such as diacritic marks.
      Group 1: the primary natural language of the content is identified at
      the page level
      Group 2: text that is displayed to everybody has diacritic marks in
      it.

Guideline 2 - Operable. Ensure that the interface elements in the content
are operable by any user.

   Checkpoint 2.1 Ensure that all of the functionality of the content is
   operable through character input to the content or user agent.
      Group 1: Operable via through character inptu
      Group 2: Hot key definitions "visible" to all users.

   Checkpoint 2.2 Allow users to control any time limits on their reading,
   interaction or responses unless control is not possible due to the
   nature of real-time events or competition.
      Group 1: time limits (with exceptions in the current draft) are
      controllable by the assistive aids, features, or services
      Group 2: time limits (with exceptions in the current draft) are
      controllable by the user
      Group 3: a duplicate version of the site is available that does not
      have any time limits

   Checkpoint 2.3 Avoid causing the screen to flicker.
      Group 1: Ability to turn off the flicker.
      Group 2: No flicker.

Guideline 3 - Navigable. Facilitate content orientation and navigation

   Checkpoint 3.1 Provide structure within content.
      Group 1: linear reading order that is consistent with the visual
      reading order <testability may be an issue here>
      Group 2: <didn't really specify what these were. said there may be
      some things about photorealistic diagrams and vector diagrams>

   Checkpoint 3.2 Provide multiple methods to explore sites that are more
   than two layers deep.
      Group 2: sites that have more than two layers have at least one other
      method for exploration besides using the links on the home page. (A
      home page and one layer of pages linked off of it would be two
      layers)a link to the alternate exploration method(s) is provided on
      the home page.
      Group 3: <didn't define this. I think it was an idea that you might
      tune the navigation of a site for a particular population or
      populations.>

   Checkpoint 3.3 Use consistent but not necessarily identical
   presentation.
      Group 2:

   Checkpoint 3.4 Provide consistent and predictable responses to user
   actions.
      Group 1: Don't do anything that prevents the user from being able to
      turn off extreme changes in context.
      Group 2:

   Checkpoint 3.5 Provide methods to minimize error and provide graceful
   recovery.
      Group 1: Do reasonable error handling.
      Group 2: checks for misspelled words are applied and correct
      spellings are suggested when text entry is required.
      Group 2: if an error is detected, feedback is provided to the user
      identifying the error.
      Group 2: errors are identified specifically and suggestions for
      correction are provided where possible
      Group 2: where consequences are significant and time-response is not
      important, one of the following is true
      Group 2: actions are reversible where possible
      Group 2: where actions are not reversible, actions are checked for
      errors in advance.
      Group 2: where not reversible, and not checkable, a confirmation is
      asked before acceptance
      Group 3: lists that are optimized for one group can be detrimental to
      others

Guideline 4 - Understandable. Make it as easy as possible to understand the
content and controls.

   Checkpoint 4.1 Write as clearly and simply as is [appropriate /
   possible] for the purpose of the content.
      Group 1: <ACTION: Mark Urban. If AT doesn't know what it is, point to
      something that will tell it.>
      Group 2:
      Group 3: Use a constrained or specialized vocabulary.

   Checkpoint 4.2 Supplement text with non-text content.
      Group 2:
      Group 3: Symbol language.

   Checkpoint 4.3 Annotate complex, abbreviated, or unfamiliar information
   with summaries and definitions.
      Group 1: Make them available to AT
      Group 2: displaying to user, visibly linking to glossaries

Guideline 5 - Robust. Use Web technologies that maximize the ability of the
content to work with current and future accessibility technologies and user
agents.

   Checkpoint 5.1 Use technologies according to specification.
      Group 1: TBD
      Group 2: TBD

   Checkpoint 5.2 Ensure that technologies relied upon by the content are
   declared and widely available.
      <Not needed under new comformance grouping scheme. Definition of
      group 2>

   Checkpoint 5.3 Choose technologies that are designed to support
   accessibility.
      <Not needed>

   Checkpoint 5.4 Ensure that user interfaces are accessible or provide an
   accessible alternative.
      <Not needed>

Andi
andisnow@us.ibm.com
IBM Accessibility Center
(512) 838-9903, http://www.ibm.com/able
Internal Tie Line 678-9903, http://w3.austin.ibm.com/~snsinfo

Received on Thursday, 3 April 2003 11:26:30 UTC