RE: Minutes: November 11 Conference Call

Comments interspersed. Look for CMcCN:: or CO::

On Thu, 19 Nov 1998, Charles (Chuck) Oppermann wrote:
> My apologies, however Active Accessibility version 1.2 shipped on November
> 11 and I was not available.  I did participate in the joint UA-PA conference
> call that same day for an hour.  I could not devote another hour to
> Authoring Tools.
> 
> I'd like to suggest that the WAI get more coordinated in the conference call
> planning.  Most conference calls I'm part of go way over time, usually just
> as the discussion is getting good.  The timing of two calls over a 3 hour
> span is not practical for me.

CMcCN::
I agree that this is a real problem for people who are working on more 
than one WAI activity. Since I think there is a lot of value in having 
people in multiple groups, because it can speed the co-ordination process 
in some instances, and because some people's outside responsibilities 
cover more than one area anyway, it would be good if the chairs can 
co-ordinate with the other groups more. 

On the particular call I had to drop out of the PA discussion early to 
make this call.

I prefer to have stuff relatively close together. The UA telecon 
is on at 4am local Australian time, and the others are not a whole heap 
better (I am not a morning person) so I would prefer to cluster stuff 
together rather than spread it across the week. But if clustering means that 
other people cannot get there because of outside commitments then I would 
rather spread out and have everyone there.

CO::
> <<
> * If a tool does generate Alt text then the tool should inform the user and
> allow the user to change it.
> >>
> What's the expectation here?  That the default placeholder strings be
> modifiable, or at the moment a default ALT text is inserted into HTML that
> the user be told and can change the string?
> 
> <<
> * Tools should not generate NULL Alt text (Alt=""). (Anything inserted into
> a document has a meaning.)
> >>
> 
> What about in the case of transparent images used for spacing purposes?
> 
CMcCN::
In the minutes this is presented as a suggestion in the discussion about 
placeholder ALT text. Perhaps it should be made clear (unless someone 
disagrees) that this only applies to placeholder text.

As I see it the use of transparent images for spacing is frowned upon, in 
favour of CSS positioning. (or living without absolute positioning. small 
screens, magnified screens, etc have hassles with it...). But as I recall 
the discussion, we resolved that an exception was relevant where there 
couldbe no ambiguity about the meaning of the image. Which is the case 
for spacer images, if you must use them.

Cheers

Charles McCathieNevile


> Thanks!
> Charles Oppermann 
> Program Manager, Accessibility and Disabilities Group,
> Microsoft Corporation
> mailto:chuckop@microsoft.com http://microsoft.com/enable/
> "A computer on every desk and in every home, usable by everyone!"

Received on Friday, 20 November 1998 00:09:02 UTC