RE: Using the terms "normative" and "informative" in EO documents

Hi All
My personal view: If we (as EOWG) are talking to educators, students and
practitioners we cannot assume that they will understand 'standards
speak' and their appreciation of the terms normative and informative may
be imprecise. For anything which EOWG is  responsible for ie
the'informative' support materials I would assume that the reader would
appreciate the more descriptive approach - and perhaps with even more
redundancy to help support non-English speakers - eg...which are
informative documents which aim to support improved understanding and
the development of good practice....
People who are involved in the contractual and legal issues need to be
pointed to the normative WCAG 2.0 - which is where they can find the
differences defined, ..eg  The WCAG 2.0 guidelines is a normative
document and  is the only document intended to be a Web standard..."
On-line you could add a hyperlink to the official definition of
normative and informative so that optionally people may learn why the
terms are important, but without breaking up the flow of the text.
Regards
Suzette




-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-eo-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-eo-request@w3.org] On
Behalf Of Shawn Henry
Sent: 25 November 2008 13:54
To: EOWG (E-mail); Judy Brewer
Subject: Using the terms "normative" and "informative" in EO documents


EOWG and others who want to comment,

Question for discussion on the EOWG mailing list:
How much should we use the terms "normative" and "informative" in our
basic introductory, education, and outreach material related to WCAG and
the other WAI technical specifications? Is it good to introduce and
reinforce these terms, which are used in the technical documents, in our
basic material? Or is it unnecessary to complicate the our basic
material with what is to some jargony terminology?

(Note that WCAG 2.0 itself provides definitions of the terms.)

Background:

Last week in discussing "How to Update Your Web Site from WCAG 1.0 to
WCAG 2.0", we considered adding these terms in: "The WCAG 2.0 technical
standard itself is a stable, normative document that will not change
once it is completed. However, Understanding WCAG 2.0 and Techniques for
WCAG 2.0 are supporting informative resources that can be updated. As
technology develops, they will be enhanced with additional tips,
techniques, and best practices." See the next-to-last paragraph in
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/transition1to2/transition1to2-20081121.
html> for how it's formatted and linked.

Here's an example of not using the actual terms: "Thus with WCAG 2.0,
there are extensive supporting materials, which are advisory documents.
The WCAG 2.0 guidelines document itself is the only document intended to
be a Web standard..." - <http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/wcag2faq#docs>

There are several places where we talk about the different types of
documents, for example:
* Overview of WCAG 2.0 Documents (old draft)
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag20.php>
* The WCAG 2.0 Documents (old draft)
http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/wcag20-docs
* How WAI Develops Accessibility Guidelines through the W3C Process:
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/w3c-process.php>
* WAI-ARIA Overview <http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/aria.php>

Your thoughts on whether or not we should use "normative" and
"informative" in some of these types of EO documents? If some but not
all, which?

Regards,
~Shawn

-----
Shawn Lawton Henry
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
e-mail: shawn@w3.org
phone: +1.617.395.7664
about: http://www.w3.org/People/Shawn/

Received on Tuesday, 25 November 2008 15:15:31 UTC