Re: Following properly documented existing procedures - A hypothetical question?

Also a reminder to contribute techniques -- including failures -- that 
you know of but are not yet publicly documented to WCAG WG:
  - http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/TECHS-SUBMIT/

You guys are the people in the trenches doing evaluation on a regular 
basis, and the more we can collect and document the less differences 
there will be, which in turn will benefit accessibility and its market.

Best,
   Shadi


On 19.11.2013 14:47, RichardWarren wrote:
> Dear Alistair,
>
> My "Checklist" is the WCAG guidelines and the question is "does this
> page/site comply with each guideline?".
>
> I have testing procedures for each guideline, but I suppose you could
> have individual checklists too.
>
> As far as I know the only areas for possible ambiguity are subjective
> such as where words such as "understandable" and "meaningful". But
> generally things like keyboard functionality work or do not work.
>
> So my answer to your question about which procedure to follow is that
> any *correct* procedure can be followed as each will give the same result.
>
> Richard
>
>
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Alistair Garrison
> Sent: Monday, November 18, 2013 9:24 PM
> To: RichardWarren
> Cc: Eval TF
> Subject: Re: Following properly documented existing procedures - A
> hypothetical question?
>
> Dear Richard,
>
>> From experience, I get the impression that evaluators tend to work from
> checklists (which they compile over time, and generally hold many but
> not all of the variations of things people do in reality).  If two
> people have slightly different checklists problems can occur - and
> really this was the reason for my question.
>
> When I chair the Evaluation Methodology harmonisation efforts for the
> EuroAccessibility Consortium we had many players in many countries with
> slightly different checklists - same when I chaired initial Evaluation
> Methodology efforts for Support-EAM / WABCluster.
>
> With reference to my reply to Detlev, the question is still - if a
> properly documented evaluation / testing procedure exists for a web page
> (albeit defined by someone else) should I not follow it, in place of my
> own?
>
> All the best
>
> Alistair
>
> On 18 Nov 2013, at 20:21, RichardWarren wrote:
>
>> Dear Alistair,
>>
>> In your hypothetical (and indeed in any practical) case - if an
>> evaluator uses WCAG-EM and as a result made a conformance claim then
>> any one else evaluating the same page by whatever method should arrive
>> at a similar conclusion and thus be able to issue a similar
>> conformance claim.
>>
>> Remember that we are issuing claims for conformance to the guidelines.
>> The existence or not of any *particular* technique is not relevant -
>> so long as some technique has been used to ensure compliance. For
>> example it does not matter whether the engineer has used the <label>
>> or <label for="xx"> technique to tie the instruction to the input
>> field so long as whichever is used is used correctly. So if the first
>> evaluator finds that the <label> element has been used correctly to
>> surround both the instruction and input field the second evaluator has
>> to do the same. The second evaluator cannot say that the page fails
>> because the <label for="xx"> technique has not been used. The
>> important thing is that one of the appropriate techniques has been used.
>>
>> WCAG-EM codifies a procedure which, if followed, will give consistent
>> results. However other procedures should give similar results, though
>> probably not as well documented or traceable.
>>
>> Regards
>> Richard
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message----- From: Alistair Garrison
>> Sent: Monday, November 18, 2013 4:54 PM
>> To: Eval TF
>> Subject: Following properly documented existing procedures - A
>> hypothetical question?
>>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> A hypothetical question.
>>
>> Scene-setting:
>>
>> A qualified person has evaluated a single web page and has made a
>> report - properly documenting all things asked for in the WCAG-EM.
>> They tested the sufficient techniques used by the developers, and all
>> relevant failure criteria. They have found no issues in the web
>> content in the web page. Based on their report (but as a separate
>> additional activity to the WCAG-EM) they have gone on to make a proper
>> WCAG 2.0 conformance claim for the single web page.
>>
>> I have been asked to evaluate the web page above.  I find the claim,
>> and the supporting evidence.
>>
>> My question is this - "Am I honour bound to follow the procedure they
>> have documented?"
>>
>> The thought in my head is yes - that I should follow their procedure
>> if it is properly documented.  I would of course check all relevant
>> failure conditions, but if I didn't follow their procedure and started
>> to test the page using tests from sufficient techniques I've chosen
>> (which have not been used to develop the web content) I might find a
>> failure or two - just because they have done things differently.
>>
>> Any thoughts on the above would be good, as we might have to mention
>> the necessity to follow properly documented existing procedures when
>> re-evaluating web pages somewhere in our document.
>>
>> All the best
>>
>> Alistair
>>
>> Richard Warren
>> Technical Manager
>> Website Auditing Limited (Userite)
>> http://www.website-accessibility.com
>>
>
>
> Richard Warren
> Technical Manager
> Website Auditing Limited (Userite)
> http://www.website-accessibility.com
>
>
>

-- 
Shadi Abou-Zahra - http://www.w3.org/People/shadi/
Activity Lead, W3C/WAI International Program Office
Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group (ERT WG)
Research and Development Working Group (RDWG)

Received on Wednesday, 20 November 2013 08:42:22 UTC