RE: Applying ATAG to status updates

Hi Jan,

Thanks for that, I've a couple of questions it might be good to discuss...

	A.2.1.1 Alternative Content: 
I take it that content from other 'authors' (Facebook users) would not be covered by this checkpoint then? It only applies to the tool's interface, therefore it would pass if the images from the tool have alternatives.

	A.3.4.2 Navigate By Structure: 
You commented "I think I'd say Pass due to the fact that the status updates are headers can be traversed easily."

Given that it's a plain text authoring box (and the SC applies to "Editing-views" rather than rendered views), wouldn't that be NA?

	A.3.6.2 Save Settings
There are lots of settings, but I couldn't find any "display settings" or "control settings" to save between sessions. Reading A.3.6.1/2, I thought it was a requirement for the tool to have them, but from your comment it could be the UA? 
In which case, it wouldn't be a requirement for a web based tool that passes WCAG.

	A.4.1.1 Content Changes Reversible
Oh, wow, I hadn't thought that you could delete a post in Facebook. Damn, that would have been useful to know before! (I thought you could only hide other people's posts from your view.)

	B.1.3.1 Auto-Generate Accessible Content
I'd thought fail because it's inserted into a heading 6, no matter the content. You mentioned that the content could be seen as headings, therefore that could be a pass.

So is an <h6> the appropriate element? My test post created this HTML, under the Heading 2 of "News feed" (attributes removed for clarity):
<h6>
  <div>
    <a>My Name</a>
  </div>
  <span>
    <div>
      Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3.<br>
      <br>
      - Testing a list<br>
      - Testing a list<br>
      - Testing a list<br>
      <br>
      &lt;h2&gt;Heading two?&lt;/h2&gt;<br>
    </div>
  </span>
</h6>

I would have thought it more appropriate (in a WCAG 1.3 sense) to use something like:

<div>
  <h3><a>My Name</a></h3>
  <div>Post content</div>
</div>

Even so, if the template structure were good from a WCAG point of view, this would pass. However, H2 to H6 wouldn't pass WCAG 2. Therefore a simple change of heading level would pass this, although I'd prefer the name to be the heading, not the post as well.

	B.1.1.1 Accessible Content Production
You commented "if the user did not use images they could [pass the checkpoint]."
Surely the checkpoint covers all the content that users can add? 

As well as the (plain text) post, you can add an image (but not alt text), video or link (both from an external source). Although Facebook say to use the caption for description (which it shouldn't), the image will still have no alt, instead of null alt. (Video and link pull from external sources such as Youtube, which might be a transformation?)

	B.2.1.2 Set Accessible Information Properties
I'd assumed this was NA, but you said "Fail - img source is requested".  The interface I used (in Chrome at least) never allows you to edit the filename, only upload or not.
Information in the picture is not editable, should that still fail?


	B.2.4.3 Let User Agents Repair
You wrote "Fail - it puts in improper alt=""
All the content images in my news stream have no alt attribute, so I don't think it is adjusting them?

	B.2.4.4 Suggest Previous Author Entries
I had thought it odd that the guideline implies that you must supply the option of showing previous entries. That is quite a big deal thing to implement then! I guess in some cases the browser will fill it in (for simple text inputs). However, because Facebook uses a text-area, the browser won't pull up previous examples.

Phew, sorry for the long email, but it's quite interesting!

Kind regards,

-Alastair

Received on Tuesday, 30 November 2010 18:21:56 UTC