Re: Murky ratings

I am concerned, and have been so for some time, that a certain proportion
of HTML authors will not take seriously the strict definition of the
"required" category in the guidelines. They may, therefore, choose to
implement all of the items which are marked as required, ignore the rest,
and then claim that their web sites are accessible.

It is time to set aside the two-level classification scheme as an
over-simplification, or at least to broaden the definition of "required"
somewhat to include those guidelines which, if not followed, would make
the document so difficult to access by certain groups of readers as to be
practically unusable.

What comments have been received so far, from web site maintainers who
have sought to apply the guidelines, concerning the classification scheme?

I agree that a note could be added to certain of the guidelines,
indicating that its status is likely to change in the future, for instance
from "recommended" to "required".

For the reasons enunciated above, I have never been fully comfortable with
the two-level classification system.

Received on Monday, 4 May 1998 19:13:30 UTC