Re: baseline_overview_draft.htm

I'm confused about the words "relied upon" and "used, but not relied
upon" in the document that defines the baseline. I thought the
baseline was for the author (or higher authority) to state the minimum
set of technologies that should be supported by the a user agent in
order to make a conformance claim. Particularly as the document states
that other technologies may be used providing they do not impact the
accessibility of the content. This seems to be a contradiction in
terms, but will be important to understand in terms of evaluating the
accessibility of a website.

If a conformance claim states that CSS is used in the baseline, but
doesn't mention that it is relied upon, then it's reasonable to assume
that the content will adhere to WCAG 2.0 when style sheets are not
supported or disabled in the user agent. In which case, why mention
CSS in the baseline? The definition of baseline states that the
technologies listed are the minimum required to receive the content by
a user agent, but other technologies may be used providing they do not
affect the accessibility of the content. The same applies to other
technologies, such as scripting. If scripting is used without having
an impact on the accessibility of the document, why mention it in the
baseline?

It might make sense to mention something that is absolutely necessary
for the baseline, like HTML, and then just use CSS, scripting, and
other technologies in a way that does not affect the accessibility of
the document. If these other technologies do not affect the
accessibility, I don't understand the rationale of declaring them in
the baseline, as they are not the minimum set of technologies required
to meet the conformance claim. It only makes sense to me to mention
those items that are assumed to be supported in order to make the
conformance claim.

Best regards,

Gez

--
_____________________________
Supplement your vitamins
http://juicystudio.com

Received on Sunday, 20 November 2005 20:38:47 UTC