Re: summary="" in HTML5 ISSUE-32

On Thu, 26 Feb 2009, Dan Connolly wrote:
> > 
> > This needs to be stated as clearly as possible: @summary is not 
> > <caption>. There may be some overlap in the minds of HTML WG members, 
> > but my read is that no one on the PF side shares that opinion. (Please 
> > speak up if any of you disagree.) @summary serves a specific purpose: 
> > to offer a description of the visual and structural makeup of a table 
> > _specifically_ for the benefit of non-visual users.
> 
> That's the 2nd time in this thread that I've seen someone take issue 
> with the problem statement/goals. (the other was Faulkner 24 Feb 2009 
> 10:25:49 +0000).
> 
> Ian, I have seen your responses regarding some of the proposed 
> solutions, but not these points about the problem statement.
> 
> What do you think of the more constrained problem statement, addressing 
> "rendering to non-visual media such as speech and Braille"?

I think that there is evidence (e.g. Steven's dataset) that shows that if 
we have a media-dependent feature for this, that users of other media will 
in some cases be disenfranchised.

I did in fact respond to comments along these lines here:

   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2009Feb/0601.html
   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2009Feb/0690.html

As Maciej notes, having features intended for specific media and features 
that are not acessible to all users is contrary to our principles of 
media-independence and accessibility.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'