comments on 'private use' section of proposal for ISSUE-31 AND ISSUE-80

"3. PRIVATE USE: In some cases, extremely complex images may be sent
from one user to another as part of a private HTML document or HTML
e-mail. Such images may be so complex that writing useful alternative
text would be a significant endeavour of its own, tantamount to
recasting the entire image as text. Ordinarily, that work would be
worth the effort, since not all users are able to see the images; the
specification should in fact require that work ordinarily. However, we
would be ignored (and likely ridiculed) if we required people to write
such text in the case of private HTML documents or HTML e-mails
amongst users who know each other and are aware of each other's
abilities (both technical and physical) to access visual
images. Therefore we should have an exception in the requirements for
this specific case. Having said that, we should encourage even such
edge cases to provide full alternative text, in the event that the
documents or e-mails are sent on to other users who are not able to
access visual images."

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2010Jul/0050.html

Why make an exception only for alt? If a document or email is PRIVATE, there
are many other conformance requirements that could be waived
* use of tables for layout
* correct use of headings
* correct use of any structural element
* use of scripting to override element roles, to name a few.

Why not waive any rules that do not have a detrimental effect upon the
parsing and  rendering of the document amongst users who know each other and
are aware of each other's
abilities (both technical and physical) ?


-- 
with regards

Steve Faulkner
Technical Director - TPG Europe
Director - Web Accessibility Tools Consortium

www.paciellogroup.com | www.wat-c.org
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