Re: please review and comment

in his proposed verbiage, phil stated:

quote
In assigning priority levels for checkpoints, "the author" or user of the
tool is assumed to be aware of the language supported, to be a competent,
but not necessarily an expert, user of the tool, and to have only a nominal
knowledge of accessibility. For example, the author is not expected to have
read all of the documentation packaged with the tool, but is expected to
know how to turn to the integrated help and documentation for assistance.
unquote

i fail to conceive how we can make such a blanket statement, considering that
half of our purpose in creating these guidelines is to ensure access to a class
of tools for quote persons with a disability unquote for whom the use of most
of the authoring tools available when the drafting of ATAG began was extremely
limited if not impossible...  how, then, can we expect them to be quote
competent, but not necessarily an expert, user of the tool, unquote when use of
such tools has been seriously curtailed, compromised, or stymied by the
inaccessibility of the tool itself?  in order to achieve such a level of
competence using authoring tools that run the gamut from not-quite to
not-at-all accessible, one would have to have the patience of job or the
obstinateness of a mule (guess into which class i fall)

what about the graduate of a web design course (or program of study) who hasn't
learned a lick of markup, nor how to properly structure content and apply
styles, but was only given a glorified introduction to a particular user
interface?  what constitutes being quote aware of the language supported
unquote?  that phrasing is so ambiguous that it could be taken to mean that the
author is aware of the language supported because he or she chose to "Save as
HTML" 

the proposed verbiage not only assumes too much, it ignores too much,
        gregory


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He that lives on Hope, dies farting
     -- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1763
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Gregory J. Rosmaita <unagi69@concentric.net>
   WebMaster and Minister of Propaganda, VICUG NYC
        <http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/vicug/index.html>
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Received on Friday, 10 December 1999 03:36:58 UTC