Re: summary="" and Universal Design in HTML5

Matt Morgan-May wrote:
> 2) @summary is alternate content for visual information, and our design
> principles dictate that it should be presented to non-visual users.
> 
> I'm still a 2. I'm happier with it doing a lot of work for non-visual users
> than I am with it kinda sorta maybe someday doing a little work for
> everyone.

Matt makes a very good point here that is worthy of discussion. I
completely agree that it is better for @summary to properly serve the
needs of non-sighted users than to  provide a /sort of/ solution for
other user groups. Also its worth saying that I would loath to see
@summary (or any other useful elements/attributes) be removed and
replaced because it /doesn't/ sort of, 'do' something for other user groups.

While I completely agree that we should aim to support /all/ modes of
user interaction, how do you go about doing this in practice? The
principles of Universal Design etc sound great, and universality is
actually becoming more and more possible, particularly on the web, but
we must be careful how we approach it. There just sometimes may not be a
one size fits all solution in every instance and it is a very bad thing
to remove proven solutions in the name of achieving this goal /if/ we
cannot be sure that the solution will actually be an improvement and
increase the scope of its reach to other user groups /properly/.

This I feel, should be the mantra for the HTML 5 spec.

Cheers

Josh

Received on Friday, 27 February 2009 08:37:30 UTC