Glossary

A comparison of WCAG 2.0 definitions 
and EO Basic Glossary Draft.

I went through the Basic Glossary for 
WAI and found these terms differing 
and worth coment.

Note: Once WCAG 2.0 is adopted, the 
WAI Basic Glossary will have to change 
its idea of what is basic.  Much of 
the EO document is technology 
dependent. See comments below.


Assistive Technology:  The text 
labeled 1. It describes how ATs for 
web content work.  In that sence the 
text is only there to limit the ATs in 
this document to those pertaining to 
web content.  This is not clear as 
stated.

I really think the basic definition 
form EOWG should come first, and the 
restrivtive text should come second 
with a lead like " many ATs refered to 
in this document work as follow..."

In general I am concerned that this 
"how it works" text will become dated 
as ATs reach behind other user agents 
or capture input before it gets to a 
user agent as in proxy servers - which 
exist today.

Finally, the list of examples is too 
long.  This gives the impression of 
being exaustive.  The shorter list of 
examples in the EOWG definition makes 
it clear that this is just a small 
sample.

Audio Description:  Does not follow 
our "succinct reccommendation" but 
does place "equivalent alternative in 
a clear context" .  The WCAG 2.0 
description reads better than our 
version to me.

--- Asside-- Authoring tool is not in 
EO Definitions but Authoring component 
 and Authoring Unit are... Talk about 
geeky squared... Wow!

Captions: WCAG 2.0 definition includes 
EO suggestions and this definition 
should replace the current one in the 
EO Draft Basic Glossary.

Equivalent Alternative is not present, 
but "Alternate Version" is ... Should 
be "Alternative Version".

... Asside... EO's basic definition 
needs work.

informative -  WCAG 2.0 and EO differ 
on these definitions.  Both are 
correct and readable within their 
general domain of discourse.

Keboard Input is defined in WCAG 2.0 
while Keyboard Equivalent is defined 
by EO...  The documents don't 
intersect.

Normative:  Differing definitions, 
both seem correct for the context.  EO 
definition is is not dependent on 
another difficult term "conformance". 
 WCAG defines normative in terms of 
conformance but never defines what 
conformance beans.  EO definition 
does.

User agent  is different but both are 
good.

Wayne

Wayne Dick PhD
Chair Computer Engineering and 
Computer Science
Director WebAdapt2Me Project at CSULB

Received on Friday, 19 May 2006 12:23:09 UTC