Comment LC-1028

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Comment 9:

Source: http://www.w3.org/mid/000901c69538$2e394450$f4c9b23a@tkhcomputer
(Issue ID: LC-1028)

Baseline - From reading the Baseline documents, it appears that if a
baseline technology does not have particular functionality (for example, the
ability to navigate using only the keyboard), then the site can still be
compliant with WCAG2 (but obviously not accessible). I think it is
reprehensible that the main body advocating accessibility is about to
release a set of guidelines that patently allow inaccessible web sites.

Proposed Change:

Remove the baseline theory, or allow only UAAG compliant programs in
baseline.

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Response from Working Group:
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Your concern seems to arise from a different understanding of the meaning of
Baseline than that intended by the Working Group. To help address this the
conformance section has been completely rewritten, and the term "baseline"
has been replaced by "accessibility-supported Web technologies".

 In order to claim conformance, a Web page must satisfy the WCAG success
criteria using a technology that has assistive technology support and works
with the accessibility features in user agents.

If a technology does not have a particular functionality that is necessary
to satisfy some WCAG success criterion (such as keyboard support), then it
is impossible to create a conforming Web page relying on that technology.
The page would need to meet that success criterion using one of the other
technologies upon which it relies.

NOTE: The technologies referred to are not the user agents, so they couldn't
conform to UAAG.  They are the technologies used to build the page (like
HTML, CSS etc.) The question of whether a technology is accessibility
supported is affected by the behavior of user agents and assistive
technology for the technology.
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Response from GSW:
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Thank you for addressing my comment.

Received on Sunday, 24 June 2007 13:27:21 UTC