Discussion on purpose of Mobile Accessibility document

For those who were not on the call: It became apparent that something
was very wrong with this page of the document [1]. There was no
agreement on whether it was for going from MWBP to WCAG or the
reverse.

Following our discussion, and having stood back from the document for
a while I realised what I believe is the problem is that the documents
are structured around the mapping, not around what people are going to
use it for. For each BP there are two paragraphs:

1. How does it especially help users with disabilities?
2. Does it help meet any WCAG 2.0 success criteria?

While these appear to be slightly different takes on the same thing, I
think that they are quite different

1. Is about the accessibility benefits of MWBP and the case for
adopting from MWBP starting from WCAG  (I've done WCAG, what is the
accessibility justification for adopting some or all of MWBP?). From
WCAG to MWBP.

2. Is about the work involved in adopting WCAG starting from MWBP
(I've done MWBP, how much further do I have to go to comply with
WCAG?) From WCAG to MWBP.

So while the *mapping* is from MWBP to WCAG, the *use of the document*
goes both ways. These two things should not be in the same document, I
think.

So at the cost of expanding from five pages to seven, and turning it
inside out, I suggest splitting this up, so that we have:

1. Extending/Upgrading from WCAG to MWBP.
    * For each MWBP, the Accessibility Benefits of this BP (MWBP
mapped to accessibility)
    * For each WCAG SC, does this WCAG SC that I have done give also
me MWBP compliance? (WCAG mapped to MWBP)
2. Extending/Upgrading from WCAG to MWBP.
    * For each WCAG SC, the Mobile Benefits of this WCAG SC (WCAG
mapped to MWBP)
    * For each MWBP, does this BP that I have done also give me WCAG
SC compliance? (MWBP mapped to WCAG)

I don't think that this will be as complicated as it seems, and will
be easier to read.

What worries me is that we've been looking at this for so long and not
noticed what the problem.

regards,

Alan

[1] http://www.w3.org/2005/MWI/BPWG/Group/TaskForces/Accessibility/drafts/ED-mwbp-wcag-20080305/mwbp-wcag20.html#MINIMIZE_KEYSTROKES


-- 
Alan Chuter,
Senior Web Accessibility Consultant, Technosite (www.technosite.es)
Researcher, Inredis Project (www.inredis.es/)
Email: achuter@technosite.es
Alternative email: achuter.technosite@yahoo.com
Blogs: www.blogger.com/profile/09119760634682340619

Received on Friday, 14 March 2008 17:34:33 UTC