Re: Response to BFs suggestions re: AUWG Poll #1: 10 September 2007

Thanks Tim.

Tomorrow I'll put out a new editor's draft with the accepted changes 
(Items 1,2,4) and with the new proposed wording (Items 3,5) marked as 
new text. I'll also send out a Poll#2.

(Note: If you haven't responded to Poll #1 and disagree with any of 
items 1, 2, 4 please respond to the poll within the next few days)

Cheers,
Jan




Tim Boland wrote:
> I accept the results that have been accepted without change..
> 
> Best, Tim Boland NIST
> 
> At 04:29 PM 9/17/2007 -0400, you wrote:
> 
>> This email attempts to address Barry's suggestions in 
>> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-au/2007JulSep/0048.html, 
>> but IMPORTANTLY I still need another response to Poll #1 before I can 
>> process the results that both Barry and Roberto have accepted without 
>> change.
>>
>> Here's Poll #1 again:
>> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-au/2007JulSep/0047.html
>>
>> I've just kept the issues that Barry made suggestions for:
>>
>>> -----
>>> Proposal 3: The "modified" text in "Relationship to the Web Content
>>> Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)"
>>> http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU/2007/WD-ATAG20-20070821/WD-ATAG20-20070821.html#Relationship-To-WCAG 
>>>
>>> Response: Accept the proposal (although it does not deal well with 
>>> the situation that someone chooses something other than a WCAG as the 
>>> guidelines for accessibility)
>>
>> Good point Barry...I propose the following text instead (and withdraw 
>> this question from poll #1):
>>
>> ATAG 2.0 relies upon *Web Content Accessibility "Benchmark"* documents 
>> to precisely specify what an evaluator interprets "accessible Web 
>> content" to mean in the context of an authoring tool and the Web 
>> content technologies that it produce and/or is implemented using. The 
>> recommended reference for the benchmark is the W3C-WAI Web Content 
>> Accessibility Guidelines (See *Note on other Accessibility Standards* 
>> [http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU/2007/WD-ATAG20-20070821/WD-ATAG20-20070821.html#other-standards]) 
>>
>> due to the quality of the document and the process under which it was 
>> developed.
>>
>> The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is the W3C-WAI 
>> Recommendation that defines requirements for making Web content 
>> accessible to a wide range of people with disabilities. At the time of 
>> publication, version 1.0 of WCAG is a W3C Recommendation *[WCAG10]*, 
>> and a second version of the guidelines is under development 
>> *[WCAG20]*. The evaluator of an authoring tool may select (and record 
>> in the conformance profile) either version of WCAG. However, 
>> developers should give consideration to the following when deciding 
>> which WCAG version to use in a product:
>>
>> [3 bullet points unchanged]
>>
>>
>>
>>> -----
>>> Proposal 5: Definition of "authoring session "
>>> http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU/2007/WD-ATAG20-20070821/WD-ATAG20-20070821.html#definitions 
>>>
>>> Response: Accept the proposal with the changes (then specify changes)
>>> suggest "no further opportunity to make changes." --> "no further 
>>> opportunity to make changes without starting another session."
>>
>>
>> Good change. I'll make the change and withdraw this item from Poll #1.
>>
>>
>>
>>> -----
>>> Proposal 6: Modified definition of "authoring tool", "view" (which would
>>> then contain "editing view" and "preview"), and "authoring tool user
>>> interface"
>>> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-au/2007JulSep/0040.html
>>> PLUS see below for modification to "authoring tool"
>>> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-au/2007JulSep/0043.html
>>> Response: Accept the proposal with the changes (then specify changes)
>>> WRT the PLUS section.
>>> ATAG 2.0 defines an "authoring tool" as any software, or *collection of
>>> software components*, that *authors* use to create or modify *Web
>>> content* for USE BY OTHER PEOPLE.
>>> (I'm aware and ok with the fact that this covers email systems that send
>>> "Web content")
>>> On the (...) comment, to me, an email (or similar, say wiki) system 
>>> should not be required to (but it is allowed to) be responsible for 
>>> assisting the author in prompting, evaluating or fixing email content 
>>> that was included from other sources (including forwarded email or 
>>> attachments). At most it should only be held accountable for the 
>>> actual content added by the author issuing the "send" request.
>>> Although the AUWG clearly would include an email system as an 
>>> authoring tool (especially one like gmail), I'm not sure all email 
>>> system vendors would agree. For example, is an email system that 
>>> sends over the internet but uses private formats (vs say HTML) to 
>>> encode the mail so that only the same type of system can receive the 
>>> mail and render it considered to be an authoring tool (Lotus Notes 
>>> can work in this mode)?
>>
>> The thing about email systems is that simply by entering the email 
>> address of a Web-archived listserv they become authors of Web content 
>> that might be viewed by a very large number of people. Even pressing 
>> "Replying All" can send to content to a large number of people.
>>
>> So it seems to me that the the basic issue is that if a software lets 
>> you determine important details of other people's interactive 
>> experiences, then they are authoring tools. (On the other hand, if a 
>> tool lets me modify my own view of the Web - e.g. a personalized 
>> portal - it does lots of "authoring-like" things, but would not be an 
>> authoring tool by my proposed definition).
>>
>> That said, ATAG 2.0 compliance doesn't mean an in-the-author's-face 
>> experience, it just means the supports need to be in place if the 
>> author wants to use them.
>>
>> Regarding private formats: If the format is fairly basic (e.g. rich 
>> text and images) that will make conformance relatively easy. 
>> Conversely, if they throw in all sorts of ability to introduce 
>> accessibility problems, greater effort to meet ATAG 2.0 seems a 
>> natural result.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Jan
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
> 
> 

-- 
Jan Richards, M.Sc.
User Interface Design Specialist
Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC)
Faculty of Information Studies
University of Toronto

   Email: jan.richards@utoronto.ca
   Web:   http://jan.atrc.utoronto.ca
   Phone: 416-946-7060
   Fax:   416-971-2896

Received on Monday, 17 September 2007 20:44:18 UTC