Comments on WAI-ARIA

++Introduction

The link "For more information see the WAI-ARIA Primer [ARIA-PRIMER] for 
the use of roles in making interactive content accessible" at the end of 
the Introduction should really be at the beginning as the Introduction 
is so full of jargon that people won't understand it and will be annoyed 
to find the link after they've struggled through.

"transform the presentation" sounds odd. "transform the presentation of 
content" might be better.

"different ways than the author designed" might be better "different 
ways than the author intended".

"the software must understand the semantics of the content" I think 
means "the software must understand the designers intention."

Mentioning "roles, states, and properties" in the first paragraph 
without explanation is jumping in at the deep end I think. At least role 
is something that needs further explanation. Or it could be omitted here 
as it isn't mentioned until some way below (in an even more abstruse 
phrase about attaching roles). These words should be linked to the glossary.

++Scope

The phrase "the WAI-ARIA Best Practices [ARIA-PRACTICES] describe 
recommended usage patterns for web content developers." could be put at 
the beginning of the Introduction. To save people reading it, the 
document should warn "you probably don't need to read this document, 
look at the Primer instead".

++1.2.  Use Cases

Maybe an initial explanatory sentence would be appropriate here. How 
many use cases are there?

The first use case should be written as a need (as the second one is). 
Rather than "Keyboard accessible content helps users of alternate input 
devices" write "Users of alternate input devices need keyboard 
accessible content." The actor is "Users of alternate input devices" 
rather than "Keyboard accessible."

Each of the two use cases is split into two paragraphs which is easier 
to read but harder to understand as the second paragraph is detached 
from its title ("Keyboard accessible" and "Assistive technology").

++Sections 4, 5, 6
It seems to be much clearer further on (from what I've read, which isn't 
much).

++9.1. Implementations
I suppose these DTDs and schemas have to be included in the same HTML 
file. The page would be easier to manage if they were in separate files 
linked from here.

++Glossary
"Familiarity with W3C XHTML 1.1 Recommendation [XHTML] and the W3C XML 
1.0 Recommendation [XML] is highly recommended to understand these 
definitions" perhaps should be mentioned at the beginning of the whole 
document as people who don't know those documents will have difficulty 
understanding the terms, and if they use the links elsewhere to jump to 
the definition, they will miss this warning.

regards,

Alan



-- 
Alan Chuter
Departamento de Usabilidad y Accesibilidad
Consultor
Technosite - Grupo Fundosa
Fundación ONCE
Tfno.: 91 121 03 30
Fax: 91 375 70 51
achuter@technosite.es
http://www.technosite.es

Received on Thursday, 12 March 2009 16:39:10 UTC