Re: Your comments on WCAG 2.0 Last Call Working Draft of December, 2007

re-clf-nsi@tbs-sct.gc.ca wrote:
> 1) Thank you for agreeing to add an advisory technique for when it is best to open new windows. We would be happy to help with developing this advisory technique.
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> 2) Adding the "Giving users advanced warning when opening a new window" advisory technique to 3.2.1 and 3.2.2 is a good start but we consulted with our accessibility community and they indicated a strong preference for it to be a sufficient technique. They indicated that if it cannot be made into a sufficient technique in WCAG 2.0 that it would be imperative for it to be made mandatory in the Government of Canada Common Look and Feel standards should our standards require "AA" WCAG 2.0 conformance instead of "AA" WCAG 1.0 conformance.
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> They indicated that their assistive technology users showed a clear preference for advance warnings being provided. It improved the experience for screen reader users, screen magnification software users, and even alternate input device users since it clearly identifies in advance if there are any changes to the expected link behaviour.
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> One potential impact that hadn't been raised previously was that screen magnification software users can become confused and disoriented when a new window opens outside of the viewing area and there is no indication that a new window was supposed to open. 
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> We also found through our testing that some of the most recent screen readers (including JAWS) did not provide consistent notifications that new windows had opened. Whether or not the notifications were provided and the timing of the notifications seemingly were impacted by many factors including the complexity of the page, the page size, the method used to open a new window, the amount of activity on the page, the number of cached elements, and even the users connection speed.
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> The above two cases could be argued to be assistive technology issues but your decision to make the advance warning non-mandatory was based upon the premise that assistive technologies now provide consistent and sufficient notifications that new windows have opened.
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> When taking into consideration that our testing indicates that the notifications are not consistent, that the notifications do not provide sufficient information for complex situations, and the fact that screen magnification users, users with cognitive impairments, as well as anyone with a popup blocker can be impacted; we recommend that the advisory technique be promoted to a sufficient technique. 
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> RECOMMENDATION: Promote "Giving users advanced warning when opening a new window" advisory technique to a sufficient technique.
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> 3) Thank you for clarifying how WCAG 2.0 covers delayed client-side redirects. We are satisfied with your explanation.
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>   
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Response from Working Group (18 April 2008):
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Thank you for your comments. We do understand the problem you are raising.
We can't address it in the manner you suggest (i.e. Promote "Giving users
advanced warning when opening a new window" advisory technique to a
sufficient technique. [for 3.2.1 and 3.2.2]) because that would mean that
warning people that a new window would open was sufficient for these - which
isn't good enough for people who need to tab past the triggering point in
the document. We are keeping them as advisory techniques though.

The working group continues to feel that this is something that
should be addressed by user agents. In some cases, they could warn in
advance. In other cases they could let the user know when the event was
triggered - and give them the option of a) opening anyway, b) not opening
the window but keeping the person in the same location on the same page as
before the triggering event or c) opening in the same window (though this
may have unintended consequences since this would be something the page
designer did not anticipate). We are feeding this information to user
agent developers by way of a list of suggestions we have created for such
recommendations. We hope that this will address your issue. 

This has also been fed to a new public assistive technology project that is 
being initiated. 

Regards,

Loretta Guarino Reid, WCAG WG Co-Chair
Gregg Vanderheiden, WCAG WG Co-Chair
Michael Cooper, WCAG WG Staff Contact
  
On behalf of the WCAG Working Group

Received on Friday, 18 April 2008 16:35:07 UTC