Re: UA Guidelines conflict: All content versus Limited Viewports (checkpoint 4.16)

Ian,
Another approach to resolve this issue is that while only one view port may 
be available at a time, the user agent should keep a list of viewports 
available and allow the user to switch between the view ports.  Your 
solution sounds OK too, but if a user decides not to open the navigation 
frame, they may have problems using the Web page.  Even with your proposed 
solution, I think the user agent should keep track of available viewports 
and allow the user to switch.

Jon


At 03:42 PM 7/7/2000 -0400, Ian Jacobs wrote:
>Hello,
>
>I'm working on a new draft that I will publish later this
>afternoon. I'm reading the checkpoints to see how they
>fit together. So far, so good, but I have stumbled across
>a problem. In the 10 June Guidelines [1], we have the following
>checkpoints:
>
>    2.1 Make all content available through the user interface. [P1]
>        Users must have access to the entire document object,
>        including equivalent alternatives for content, attributes,
>        style sheets, etc. through the user interface. This
>        checkpoint does not require that all content be available
>        in every view. A document source view is part of a
>        solution for providing access to content, but is not
>        a sufficient solution on its own.
>
>   4.16 Allow the user to configure the user agent to limit
>        the number of open viewports. [Priority 2]
>
>We have discussed that the minimal requirement for
>checkpoint 4.16 is to limit the number of open viewports
>to one (refer to "Determining Conformance to UA Guidelines" [2]).
>
>Checkpoint 4.16 is broken for the following reasons:
>
>1) The definition of "viewport" includes frames. Therefore,
>    this checkpoint would mean that a user agent could be
>    configured to render no more than one frame.
>
>2) If the user has requested only one viewport,
>    and the user agent is not required to make all
>    content available in a single viewport, then there's a
>    risk that the user will not have access to all content.
>
>3) There's no requirement on the user agent to notify the
>    user that the user agent has suppressed the opening
>    of a viewport.
>
>Recall that the purpose of this checkpoint is to improve
>accessibility for users who might be disoriented by
>the simultaneous presentation of too much content. This
>checkpoint is not about disorientation due to sudden
>focus changes (that's checkpoint 4.15).
>
>In the Proposed Recommendation [3], the checkpoint reads:
>
>   4.16 For those viewports, prompts, and windows that
>        open without an explicit request from the user,
>        allow the user to configure how they open.
>
>To address the above issues, I propose that we rewrite
>4.16 as follows:
>
><NEW>
>Allow the user to configure the user agent to only
>open viewports on explicit user request. For a viewport
>that the user agent does not open automatically,
>notify the user and allow the user to open the viewport
>manually. Allow users to close viewports.
></NEW>
>
>Notes:
>
>1) Some viewports may open and close in groups, like frames.
>2) Following a link constitutes an explicit request, even
>    though the user may not know that the author has programmed
>    the link to open a new viewport. In this case, the user
>    can close the viewport manually.
>3) Executing scripts that cause a window to open do not
>    constitute an explicit request from the user.
>
>  - Ian
>
>[1] http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/WD-UAAG10-20000610/
>[2] http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/2000/05/ua-minreqs
>[3] http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/PR-UAAG10-20000310
>--
>Ian Jacobs (jacobs@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
>Tel:                         +1 831 457-2842
>Cell:                        +1 917 450-8783

Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., ATP
Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology
Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services
MC-574
College of Applied Life Studies
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

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Received on Monday, 10 July 2000 11:39:16 UTC