"to urge, suggest or dictate"

Towards a better definition of "prompt" the following is my reading 
of where the group is at with respect to the issues regarding 
"prompt:"

We have general agreement that:
- the use of the word prompt in the guidelines does not refer to the 
narrow definition of a "prompt" as defined in several software 
guidelines, rather it is used as a verb with the Oxford dictionary 
meaning of "To urge, suggest, or dictate (a thing); to inspire, give 
rise to (thought, action)."
- the form and timing of the prompt can be user configurable
- equivalent text deserves special support within the authoring tool, 
because it can involve the greatest amount of work for the author, 
and because of it's importance within WCAG, therefore we want to do 
more than what is encompassed within guidelines 4 and 5. We want to 
do more than check, repair and provide help. We also don't want to 
depend upon the author to seek out support. The additional support or 
prompting should be initiated by the tool if a problem is detected, 
not requested by the author.

Beyond the implementation details the sticking points we can't reach 
agreement on are:
- whether the prompt requires author response or requests author response
- whether the prompt must occur within the same authoring session
- whether the prompting must be on by default

The general goal of the guideline is to:
- encourage, urge and support the author in creating meaningful 
equivalent text without causing frustration that may cause the author 
to turn off access options
- cause a positive disposition and awareness on the part of the 
author toward accessible authoring practices.

Do people agree with this summary? I'm in the process of coming up 
with a not too wordy definition based on these assumptions.

Jutta

Received on Wednesday, 24 May 2000 14:54:57 UTC