- From: Suzette Keith <S.Keith@mdx.ac.uk>
- Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:13:57 +0000
- To: Shawn Henry <shawn@w3.org>, "EOWG (E-mail)" <w3c-wai-eo@w3.org>, Judy Brewer <jbrewer@w3.org>
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