ACTION-23 - WCAG response to request to modify intent for 1.3.1 Info and Relationships

Last week the WCAG working group reviewed our request to modify the intent
for 1.3.1 as follows:

   Replace the current last paragraph which reads:

   There may also be cases where it may be a judgment call about what
   information should appear in text and what would need to be directly
   associated. However, wherever possible it is necessary for the
   information to be programmatically determined rather than providing a
   text description before encountering the table.

   With the following paragraphs  ( a new one plus the paragraph above
   slightly edited)

   Structure and relationships are often visually perceivable. For
   instance, when information is presented in tabular form the visual
   structure and relationship of one cell to another, the structure and
   relationship of one cell to all the cells sharing the same row or
   column, and the relationship of one cell to the row and/or column header
   are necessary for understanding information in a table. Having this
   structure and these relationships programmatically determined or
   available in text ensures that information important for comprehension
   will be perceivable to all.

   There may also be cases where it may be a judgment call as to whether
   the relationships should be programmatically determined or be presented
   in text. However, when technologies support programmatic relationships,
   it is strongly encouraged that information and relationships be
   programmatically determined rather than described in text.

Per the survey results and the group discussion, the working group feels
that the first paragraph is repetitive of what is already in the second
paragraph. Instead of adding our first proposed paragraph, they agreed to
this resolution:

   RESOLUTION: 2nd paragraph gets replaced with “Sighted users perceive
   structure through various visual cues — headings are often in a larger,
   bold font separated from paragraphs by blank lines; list items are
   preceded by a bullet and perhaps indented; paragraphs are separated by a
   blank line; items that share a common characteristic are organized into
   tabular rows and columns with their headers; form fields may be
   positioned as groups that share text labels; a different background
   color may be used to indicate that several items are related to each
   other; words that have special status are indicated by changing the font
   family and /or bolding, italicizing, or underlining them and so on.
   HAVING THIS STRUCTURE AND THESE RELATIONSHIPS PROGRAMMATICALLY
   DETERMINED OR AVAILABLE IN TEXT ENSURES THAT INFORMATION IMPORTANT FOR
   COMPREHENSION WILL BE PERCEIVABLE TO ALL.

With regard to the second paragraph of our proposal, they agreed to this
resolution:

   RESOLUTION: replace the seventh paragraph with "There may also be cases
   where it may be a judgment call as to whether the relationships should
   be programmatically determined or be presented in text. However, when
   technologies support programmatic relationships, it is strongly
   encouraged that information and relationships be programmatically
   determined rather than described in text.

If there are no objections, with these WCAG resolutions, we can close
ACTION-23 tomorrow.

Andi