- From: Marti <marti47@MEDIAONE.NET>
- Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2000 10:58:25 -0400
- To: "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines" <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
After a couple of days to think about it I find I am still bothered by Principle 1. " Provide alternatives to auditory and visual presentations" Setting the guidelines under it aside for the moment, it doesn't take much of a stretch of the imagination to interpret this to mean I need to provide a sound track of some sort to read all pages aloud and perhaps the score for any music I might put on a page. Given the propensity to interpret accessiblity requirements in the worst possible light ( e.g. the still somewhat widespread belief that it means getting rid of all graphics and color) this really worries me. Greg's suggestion about "sensory modality" was good but leads us back to the problem of needing to interpret the language (say that again in English please). Perhaps we could state the Principle as Provide for alternative modes of presentation This puts the actual presentation mode in the hands of the User Agent or Assistive Technology while requiring the information be provided to support any transformations. Thus we can speculate about a tool for the deaf that transforms music to a visual representation of the sound, or other tools not yet imagined. And speaking of speculation ... When the guidelines under principle 1 are added, I have a few additional concerns. In particular the phrase "Until user agents can". I know problems with this phrase have been discussed before but I don't recall any resolution. There is, of course, the problem of figuring out exactly when this condition has been satisfied, and I am left wondering why, if we speculate about user agents doing something, not just make it a wish list of all the wonderful things we think they should do in the future? Perhaps we should eliminate the futuristic speculation and make the guidelines relevant to technology readily available as of a given date? Future updates to the guidelines could then consider each guideline in light of the then readily available technology and update accordingly. This method would then allow for implementations that take best advantage of technology to meet the principles without actually violating the guidelines where conflicts exist, as they inevitably will. Marti
Received on Sunday, 16 July 2000 10:49:49 UTC