Response Re: Hard coded button

Dear Daniel:

Let me clarify at the outset that I believe you and we agree on the most important point.  Your accomodation request is reasonable and should be supported by web technology.

Could a hard coded button on the page meet your need? Of course it could. That's not why we are seeking to achieve the result differently.

The primary reason why a hard coded control on the page is inadequate, in our view, is that it just won't be there in far too many instances. Whether coded in web site source or through an edge transformation technology, only sites providing the button would be made accessible to you through that mechanism.

There's the further problem that yours is but one accomodation among many. Other people with disabilities have different needs which are equally legitimate and deserving of accomodation.Were we to create a button for every permutation we could quickly have dozens and even hundreds of buttons on each page. That just doesn't seem efficient to us. It's not efficient for the content provider nor for the user who needs the accomodation.

Note also that such a button would also tell the page owner something about you that you may not necessarily want to disclose. In other words, it doesn't preserve your privacy. 

You asked us to explain why your proposal was not getting our support. I hope the above explanation clarifies that part. But, let me explain what we are working toward instead.

We would like to see a portable set of personal configuration options standardized so that your accomodation need, as well as the needs of all those other persons with disabilities could be seamlessly supported across any and all web content. This would require a little work to setup, but once setup could potentially transform every page accessed.  No need to click a button over and over, and no need to find your button amidst everyone else's buttons. Not only is this achievable in our opinion, it can be achieved in a way that protects your privacy far more strongly than an on page button for you (and others) to click on.

So, to sum up, our preferred approach is a configure once and deploy everywhere approach that preserves privacy. This concept is documented in a draft report we are developing available here:

https://a11yedge.github.io/capabilities/index.html#uxproc

Best wishes,
Janina


> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: - Daniel - <danielboontje@hotmail.de>
> Date: Tue, Jan 2, 2024 at 5:46???PM
> Subject: Hard coded button
> To: Lionel Wolberger <lionel@userway.org>
> 
> 
> Dear Lionel,
> 
> in the october 23rd meeting you expressed "We'll invite Daniel to attend to
> discuss why his move to the 'solution space' (hard coded button in the
> corner) is likely not the solution". (meeting link here
> <https://www.w3.org/2023/10/23-a11yedge-minutes.html>) So far I was unable
> to attend the meetings, unfortunately. Could you please explain in an email
> reply here why you think that such a rather useful button isn't the
> solution to the problem?
> 
> Sincerely, Daniel
> <lionel@userway.org>

-- 

Janina Sajka (she/her/hers)
Accessibility Consultant https://linkedin.com/in/jsajka

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Co-Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures	http://www.w3.org/wai/apa

Linux Foundation Fellow
https://www.linuxfoundation.org/board-of-directors-2/

Received on Tuesday, 16 January 2024 15:09:04 UTC