RE: About ISO 9241-171 (Re: WCAG2ICT Meeting minutes for 18-Sept-2011)

Completely agree with this.
p.s.
WCAG is not written well for regulatory usage in my opinion either.  Regulation is different than “guidance”.


From: Loïc Martínez Normand [mailto:loic@fi.upm.es]
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2012 8:44 AM
To: Mary Jo Mueller
Cc: public-wcag2ict-tf@w3.org
Subject: About ISO 9241-171 (Re: WCAG2ICT Meeting minutes for 18-Sept-2011)

Dear all,

Sorry for not being very active in WCAG2ICT, but these days I cannot fit my schedule to be able to better participate. In addition to M376 work I have plenty of academic related issues due to the beginning of classes.

I've just read the minutes from yesterday's meeting and there is one sentence that is very strange to me: "171 was not written as a standard that could be enforced through regulation. It was designed as a collection of good things to do."

To me, as one of the members of the ISO WG that drafted this standard, this affirmation is wrong because ISO 9241-171 is written as a proper standard and contains both requirements (shalls) and recommendations (shoulds) and it was written with regulation in mind (in fact that is the reason that forced us to have requirements).

The introduction of ISO 9241-171 even says (emphasis is mine): "... this part of ISO 9241 addresses the increasing need to consider social and legislative demands for ensuring accessibility..." and, as part of the user groups of the Standard, it includes "buyers, who will reference this part of ISO 9241 during product procurement".

And the scope of 9241-171 says (emphasis is mine): "It is intended for use by those responsible for the specification, design, development, evaluation and procurement of software platforms and software applications".

So I think that we cannot use the idea of ISO 9241-171 not being enforceable through legislation as a proper reply to the comments received to the WCAG2ICT draft.

Best regards,
Loïc

On Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 10:40 PM, Mary Jo Mueller <maryjom@us.ibm.com<mailto:maryjom@us.ibm.com>> wrote:

Here's today's meeting minutes: www.w3.org/2012/09/18-wcag2ict-minutes.html<http://www.w3.org/2012/09/18-wcag2ict-minutes.html>


Best regards,

Mary Jo Mueller
IBM Research ► Human Ability & Accessibility Center
11501 Burnet Road, Bldg. 904 Office 5D017, Austin, Texas 78758
512-286-9698<tel:512-286-9698> T/L 363-9698
maryjom@us.ibm.com<mailto:hnielsen@us.ibm.com>

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Loïc Martínez-Normand
DLSIIS. Facultad de Informática
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Campus de Montegancedo
28660 Boadilla del Monte
Madrid
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e-mail: loic@fi.upm.es<mailto:loic@fi.upm.es>
tfno: +34 91 336 74 11
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