RE: Combine 79, 78, and 74 SCs? (was Re: Mechanism Disclaimer)

From: Gregg C Vanderheiden [mailto:greggvan@umd.edu]
Sent: Saturday, January 21, 2017 6:14 PM

this could easily be read by some in the following manner.


  *   “The browser (when using HTML) allows "background colors, font family​, ​or the spacing between characters, words, lines, or paragraphs​ to the element level” to the following degrees  (colors from x to y, the following font families, the spacing between characters to be x to y etc)   — but if you use PDF — then you  arecreating content that cannot be adjusted in these ways — so you fail this SC”


Maybe
The presentation of content does not interfere with the user agent's ability to allow the user to change foreground and background colors, font family​, ​or the spacing between characters, words, lines, or paragraphs​ to the element level, for the full range of values allowed by the user agent​, for the technology chosen for the content.

Lots of words… but this would I think work — and avoid restrictive interpretations that would exclude anything but HTML or markup languages.
[Jason] Would the following be as clear? If so, it would also have the advantage of brevity.

The presentation of content does not interfere with the user agent's ability, if any, to allow the user to change foreground and background colors, font family​, ​or the spacing between characters, words, lines, or paragraphs​ to the element level, for the full range of values allowed by the user agent.
I suppose this would exclude images of text, even if they have text alternatives, unless the user agent can render the text alternative instead of the image and adjust these parameters appropriately.
In WCAG 2.0, we were careful to avoid “until user agents” and “if user agents” clauses, and this proposal seems dangerously similar to those. How much does it differ from:

Features of the technologies relied upon by the content are not used in a way that would restrict the ability, if any, of user agents to change foreground and background colors, font family​, ​or the spacing between characters, words, lines, or paragraphs.
I’m not sure whether you mean “to the element level” (which could be anything), or “to the block/paragraph level), and I would welcome more precision here. For the moment, I’ve left this out of the second proposal above.


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