User Agent Guidelines

Heather,

I would like to welcome you to the Web Accessibility Initiative and look
foreward to your participation.

The user agent guidelines[1] discuss exchange of information between User
Agents and Assistive Technologies.  Currently the guidelines recommend the
use of DOM for access to author supplied content, since it contains the
information needed for the alternative renderings of many types of web
based information (i.e. table header information, form labels, strucural
markup information...).  Plateform specific technologies like MSAA for
MS-Windows are useful and are currently needed to provide access to menus,
dialog boxes and other user interface controls.  The guidelines do not
exclude the use of MSAA for access to author supplied content, but to
comply with the User Agent Guidelines it must also provide access to the
content through the DOM.  Section 5 of the User Agent guidelines is the
primary section for outlining the current requirements for the exchange of
information.

Microsoft has been involved with the development and review of these
guidelines.  Dick Brown and others in the accessibility and IE development
groups at Microsoft have contributed to the development of the current User
Agent Guidelines. 

If I can be of any assistance in helping you understand the user agent
guidelines, please to not hesitate to contact me. 

Jon
Chair
W3C WAI User Agent Working Group

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/PR-UAAG10-20000310/
Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., ATP
Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology
Chair, W3C WAI User Agent Working Group
Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services
College of Applied Life Studies
University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
1207 S. Oak Street, Champaign, IL  61820

Voice: (217) 244-5870
Fax: (217) 333-0248

E-mail: jongund@uiuc.edu

WWW: http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~jongund
WWW: http://www.w3.org/wai/ua

Received on Thursday, 16 March 2000 10:14:02 UTC