JB comments on EOWG's draft comments on eGov draft

Hi Sharron, Shawn, & EOWG

Thanks for pulling together these draft comments on the eGov doc draft.

Some quick comments follow while you're wrapping up your draft 
comments to the eGov IG.

But first just as an FYI, in my own comments I'll be proposing a 
TOC-level heading under "What are the main issues...?" that more 
explicitly calls out accessibility for PWD as a significant eGov 
issue, perhaps in place of their current 4th-tier bullet "Inclusive 
Access to Information" which touches on the issue but somewhat more 
vaguely. Also, I plan to suggest additional text for the 
accessibility topic, including brief references to the extent of 
policy activity in accessibility and mention of the significance of 
standards harmonization in achieving accessibility-related policy 
goals. I may not have my own comments ready till this weekend, and 
while I'll cc EOWG when I send them, they won't be solely addressing 
accessibility issues.

- For your text, two suggestions: instead of "Web Access is Essential 
for Equal Opportunity" I suggest using "Web Accessibility is 
Essential for... " here. It is much less ambiguous.

- Also, the text in this paragraph is re-using stuff that I wrote 
and/or co-wrote years ago. I generally try to use more updated 
phrasing these days, since in many if not most countries the Web has 
indeed already spread into most areas of society and daily life, and 
it has also already replaced traditional resources. I don't have 
handy a complete re-write of the paragraph at the moment, but please 
re-tweak the tenses in this paragraph. I'm also looking at the 
following paragraphs in your comments, some of which are also 
familiar wording, but I'm wondering whether all of the detail here is 
still necessary or entirely relevant for the eGov document. I 
wondering whether it might be replaced with something more 
forward-looking... for the time being, given the tight timeline, 
perhaps it is best to keep these paragraphs, with a few tweaks to the 
first paragraph; and if I get a chance over the weekend I may suggest 
some alternative text in my comments to the eGov IG that complements 
the intent of your comments.

Best,

- Judy

--
Want an accessible Web site?
Check out the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
http://www.w3.org/WAI/

Judy Brewer    +1.617.258.9741
Director, Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
MIT/CSAIL Building 32-G526
32 Vassar Street
Cambridge, MA,  02139,  USA

Received on Thursday, 23 April 2009 20:47:57 UTC