Re: Selecting Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools-see EARL doc

Hello Judy, Shadi and all,

Here are some statements  reproduced from the  doc on
Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0 at
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/2002/06/25-earl.html
These  are identical to the thoughts I have expressed in all my previous postsurging for a change in: 
- definition of tools, 
- focus from development to evaluation/testing and reporting

Here are the statements from EARL 1.0:
<blockquote>
1. The following roles are common in software development: product manager, product designer, tester and developer. 
Tester tests software using an evaluation tool.
Developer imports tests results into development tool and makes repairs.
In small organizations, all of these roles might be performed by a single person. In large organizations, there might be multiple people in each role who need to coordinate.

2. EARL is used  to state test results for any thing tested against any set of criteria.
Test criteria = What are we evaluating the test subject against? This could be a specification, a set of guidelines, a test from a test suite, or some other test case.
The result = Did the test subject pass or fail the test? How certain can we be?
3. Tests are run, they are collated, analyzed, and presented in some sort of report.
</blockquote>

Therefore something that does not produce test results  because it does not test a site against a specific criteria is not an eval tool. It may be an aid  to a developer or something that facilitates  authoring but it is not an eval tool. So such tools have no place in a doc that talks of selecting eval tools. 
I hope the above can influence the next draft of the doc on Selecting Eval Tools.

Sailesh Panchang
Senior Accessibility Engineer 
Deque Systems,11180  Sunrise Valley Drive, 
4th Floor, Reston VA 20191
Tel: 703-225-0380 Extension 105 
E-mail: sailesh.panchang@deque.com
Fax: 703-225-0387
* Look up <http://www.deque.com> *