Basing conformance for accessibility questions on subjective determinations

Trimmed cc list. Feel free to re-add the other lists if you think they are 
interested.

On Wed, 16 Apr 2008, John Foliot wrote:
> 
> I myself cannot accept a technical standard that bases a key 
> accessibility question upon a subjective determination by an unknown 
> third-party entity regarding conformance.

Then you presumably have much bigger concerns with HTML5 than just one 
related to alternative text.

The following aspects of HTML5 today are conformance requirements I can 
think of off the top of my head that rely on subjective determinations:

* Using <h1> to identify a header rather that big text.
* Using <cite> for works, not quotations.
* Using <em> for emphasis, not italics.
* Using <ins> to indicate inserted text, not underlines.
* Using tables for tabular data, not layout.
* Providing correct header/cell associations with header="" and scope="".
* Including appropriate alternative text in alt="".
* Associating the right form control with <label for="">.

All of these are subjective conformance criteria that are key 
accessibility questions.

All of these also apply to HTML4 documents.

I see no way to make these anything but subjective. How do you suggest we 
address these problems?

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Thursday, 17 April 2008 01:03:25 UTC