Re: SC 1.3.2 and non-visited/visited links

On Tue, May 30, 2006 at 12:00:07PM +0200, Johannes Koch wrote:
> 
> SC 1.3.2  Any information that is conveyed by color is also visually evident 
> without color.
> 
> Visual browsers have presented non-visited and visited links in different 
> colours for a long time. Authors caring for usability have adopted this feature 
> and suggested different colours for non-visited and visited links in their 
> style sheets. SC 1.3.2 seems to indicate that this is not sufficient. Does my 
> web content fail this SC when I don't change the default coulouring of links 
> via CSS?
That's how I would read it.
> 
> Or does SC 1.3.2 not apply here because "information that is conveyed by color" 
> is defined as "information presented in a manner that depends entirely on the 
> ability to perceive color" and the state of the link could also be 
> programmatically determined?
As written, sc 1.3.2 doesn't say the above, but I think it should.

Whether the distinction is visually evident without colour just happens to
depend on the user agent, including for example client-side style sheets if
CSS is used.

In my judgment, programmatic determination should be sufficient here. The user
agent, if properly equipped and configured, can then make it visually evident.

I suggest submitting this to the WCAG 2.0 comments so that it isn't lost in
revising the guidelines.