Re: FIRST DRAFT: Six Principles of Accessible Web Design

I finally took some time to read your paper, Kynn.

I'd like to know more about the context of the paper. Is it something
we plan to use on a wide distribution basis for the less technical
web designer audience ?

  http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-eo/1998AprJun/0010.html

> INTRODUCTION

I think the intro should start with a clear statement about what we
want to achieve.

I suggest something along:

Audience: HTML authors and web designers.

Goal:
   Web content has to be readable and easily navigable on a text-only
line-by-line basis. You do not have to rewrite your HTML page to
achieve this goal, as the HTML format is mostly textual to start with,
but you do have to pay attention to some important aspects related to
navigability and textual transformation of rich media elements (such
as image, audio, script).

Rationales:
   Web content has to be accessible by people with a permanent or a
temporary disability (visual impairment, web phone, low bandwidth or
small screen size access, etc). In addition, good structure and
textual availibility improve the overall quality of the Web, as
searching is made easier and download time (when using style sheet
instead of graphics) is reduced.


> SIX PRINCIPLES OF ACCESSIBLE WEB DESIGN
>
>     I.  Create pages that conform to accepted standards.
>    II.  Know the difference between structural and presentational
>         elements; use stylesheets when appropriate.
>   III.  Use HTML 4.0 features to provide information about the
>         purpose and function of elements.
>    IV.  Make sure your pages can be navigated by keyboard.
>     V.  Provide alternative methods to access non-textual
>         content, including images, scripts, multimedia,
>         tables, forms and frames, for user agents that do not
>         display them.
>    VI.  Be wary of common pitfalls that can reduce the=20
>         accessibility of your site.

I'd drop III and IV from the TOC, to end up with something like 4
principles.

     I.  Create pages that conform to accepted standards.
    II.  Know the difference between structure and presentation
   III.  Provide alternative to non-textual content
    IV.  Be wary of common pitfalls

and from there on, go into more details, as you do, but try to avoid
duplication of what's in the GL guideline, as it changes on a regular
basis and would make this document obsolete overnight.

Received on Thursday, 11 June 1998 12:03:38 UTC