RE: Doctype and Assistive Technologies

I don't know about assistive technologies, but there are practical
considerations regarding the use and position of the DOCTYPE in normal
browsers that distinguish between quirks and standards mode.  For
explanations, see a section in our draft tutorial at
http://www.w3.org/International/tutorials/tutorial-char-enc.html#serving

Note how Internet Explorer requires nothing to appear before the DOCTYPE for
standards mode to kick in.  This is a problem for people putting out XHTML
as text/html. (The following section describes some alternatives).

Hth
RI


> -----Original Message-----
> From: w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org 
> [mailto:w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Doyle Burnett
> Sent: 18 February 2004 00:36
> To: W3C Web Content
> Subject: Doctype and Assistive Technologies
> 
> 
> 
> To The Group -
> 
> I know full-well that web pages need to have a declared 
> Doctype to conform to the WCAG guidelines.  I also know that 
> the Doctype tells user agents (generally speaking, web 
> browsers) how to act and present the content based upon any 
> given pages Doctype.  I also realize that a Doctype is needed 
> (in most cases, I think) for the parsing of pages such that 
> automated tools can be used to check for accessibility.  
> Given what I know - here's what I am wanting to find out:
> 
> Can anyone tell me instances of assistive technologies NOT 
> working because there was no declared Doctype?  Is it 
> becoming more or less important to have Doctypes declared as 
> the first set of instructions that user agents and assistive 
> technologies will encounter?  If a web page conforms to a 
> particular Doctype but it's not declared in the code of the 
> page, what might likely happen to the browser or assistive 
> technology accessing the page?
> 
> I was asked these questions and felt that additional answers 
> might be helpful.  Thanks for you help.
> 
> Doyle Burnett
> 
> 
> Doyle Burnett
> Education and Training Specialist
> Multiple Disabilities Program
> Special Education Service Agency
> dburnett@sesa.org
> Www.sesa.org
> -- 
> 
> 
>

Received on Wednesday, 18 February 2004 06:40:00 UTC