Re: skill level

In general I think this is a pretty good summary. I would challenge the idea
that a text-based HTML editor is always aimed at someone who knows something
about HTML, and I have stated before that I don't think we should rule out
the ossiblity of an author or a purchaser wanting a tool that we would find
annoying to use because it is so strict (such tools are actually sold for
money, so people must want them) but those are minor quibbles.

Charles McCN

On Wed, 1 Dec 1999, Jan Richards wrote:

  I think the skill level stuff is easier to think about in two parts:
  
  In section 1-6, the "author" is assumed to be a person who possesses the
  minimum level of markup and application knowledge required to create
  markup in the tool BUT not necessarily any knowledge or motivation
  regarding the existence or details of accessible document design.
  
  As such, the tool should initially inform the user of accessibility
  issues  with an option to suppress most of the help and justification
  details later on. However, the tool should never assume that the author
  will possess a strong enough motivation to produce accessible content
  that they will tolerate lengthy or complex authoring procedures in the
  name of accessibility.
  
  In section 7, the "author" is assumed to be a person who possesses the
  ability (with appropriate technological assistance) to utilize the OS
  interface environment (including applications that follow the
  accessibility requirements for that OS environment) AND possesses the
  minimum level of markup knowledge required to create markup in the tool.
  [ed. note: you can't require application knowledge because they haven't
  used the tool yet]
  
  For example, for a text based HTML editor in Windows95, the "author" is
  assumed to be capable of operating Windows95 interface objects AND has a
  working knowledge of HTML. For a WYSIWYG HTML editor in a X-windows
  environment, the "author" is assumed to be capable of operating
  X-windows interface objects BUT not necessarily any knowledge of HTML
  
  Jan Richards
  ATRC
  

--Charles McCathieNevile    mailto:charles@w3.org  phone: +61 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative                    http://www.w3.org/WAI
21 Mitchell Street, Footscray, VIC 3011,  Australia (I've moved!)

Received on Wednesday, 1 December 1999 23:27:31 UTC