Re: conflation of issues or convergence of interests?

On Thu, Aug 02, 2007 at 12:22:23AM +0200, Sander Tekelenburg wrote:
 
> > "X is accessible to Y"
> > means "Y is able to access/use X".  I'm not limiting the term to
> > just accessibility to people with disabilities, though.
> 
> Right, that's how I used it too, up until a few days ago when it became clear
> that different people are insisting on using different definitions. 

I prefer to use "accessible" always as a two-place predicate in accordance
with the above characterization, unless the context of the discussion makes it
clear whose access is under consideration. The W3C/WAI is chartered, and
funded, to improve access for people with disabilities, which is why the term
is often used in a way that implicitly confines it to that
category.

To state it in technical, logical terms, the domain of Y, in the context of
such discussions, is sortally restricted to the set of persons with a
disability. Nevertheless, it is often beneficial to state more precisely to
whom we are referring in discussing the accessibility-related implications of
a particular technical decision: saying that certain Web content is
"accessible" or "inaccessible" inevitably raises the question, "accessible to
whom?", gaining clarity on which is usually helpful in carrying forward a
substantive technical discussion.

Received on Thursday, 2 August 2007 00:00:50 UTC