Re: Please put in interim text for the ISSUE-204 statement about exposing semantics of hidden content

On Sep 12, 2012, at 3:06 PM, John Foliot <john@foliot.ca> wrote:

> Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> I think that's a good thought.
> 
> 
>> Jonas Sicking wrote:
>>> 
>>> Could we at least add language saying that this is only applicable
>>> until a sizable portion of UAs have implemented the ability to expose
>>> the full semantic content to users.
>>> 
>>> Otherwise we'll be making poor recommendations, which is exactly what
>>> that sentence is trying to avoid doing.
> 
> 
> Respectfully, that is a really bad idea. 
> 
> One of the most oft cursed phrases of WCAG 1 was "Until user agents ..."
> (http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#until-user-agents) - here,
> what is sizable, when and who decides, what happens to backward
> compatibility, etc., etc.?
> 
> I would strenuously urge this Working Group to not fall into that trap again
> - it caused significant confusion and consternation prior to the release and
> adoption of WCAG 2.

That example makes me lean even more towards my previous suggestion (which you snipped) - which is to update the spec when and if the future condition we imagine actually occurs.

Regards,
Maciej

Received on Wednesday, 12 September 2012 22:15:21 UTC