Re: UA guidelines and robots

I think this issue is probably better suited for Web Content, or Protocols
and Format.
http://www.w3.org/wai/gl
http://www.w3.org/wai/pf
Jon


At 04:06 PM 5/24/99 +0100, you wrote:
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Jon Gunderson <jongund@staff.uiuc.edu>
>To: <b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk>; <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
>Sent: Friday, May 21, 1999 9:03 PM
>Subject: UA guidelines and robots
>
>
>> There is currently no mention of WWW robots in the UA guidelines.   I am
>> not sure exactly what the accessibility issue is related to robots and
>user
>> agents.  If you feel there is an issue please send it to me or the group
>> for consideration.
>> Thanks,
>> Jon
>
>Hi Jon
>     Robots should benefit from accessible HTML design (i.e. they don't
>understand "click here"; often they can't follow framed sites or clever
>Javascripted sites, etc.)  So an accessible site following WAI guidelines
>should result in a site being indexed.
>    However there is also the issue of whether developments which will aid
>robot software (such as site mapping standards) will also potentially
>provide accessibility benefits.  For example would the ability to process
>link information independently of the HTML resource be of use?  IE5 provides
>the capability now (using the DOM, although it could be done in other ways).
>For example an RDF-based sitemap schema which defined relationships between
>related resources would be of use for indexing purposes (no point in
>indexing the same resource in HTML, Word and PDF formats more than once) and
>might also be of use for accessibility purposes.
>    Definitions for site mapping is not happening within W3C.  Netscape are
>doing something for Mozilla  and various library communities are working in
>this area.
>    My question is whether any of the W3C WAI groups should be involved in
>ensuring that these (third-party) sitemapping schemas are developed with the
>needs of the disabled communities taken on-board. (Note that this may be
>out-of-scope for WAI, as W3C are unlikely to be standardising a sitemapping
>schema).
>    Note that I *think* that there should be benefits (based on informal
>discussions with people) but would find it helpful if there was some
>discussion on this topic.
>   Thanks
>    Brian
>
>------------------------------------------------------
>Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus
>UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, England, BA2 7AY
>Email:  b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk     URL:    http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
>Homepage: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ukoln/staff/b.kelly.html
>Phone:  01225 323943            FAX:   01225 826838
> 
Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., ATP
Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology
Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services
University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
1207 S. Oak Street
Champaign, IL 61820

Voice: 217-244-5870
Fax: 217-333-0248
E-mail: jongund@uiuc.edu
WWW:	http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~jongund
	http://www.als.uiuc.edu/InfoTechAccess

Received on Monday, 24 May 1999 12:17:01 UTC