Re: consensus?? RE: Textual Images vs. Styled Text, Round Three *ding*

At 12:27 PM 10/16/2000 , Wendy A Chisholm wrote:
>I have boiled the arguments into the following two positions:
>1. Checkpoint 3.1 of WCAG 1.0 is open to interpretation because people believe that adequate support for "an appropriate markup language" does not exist.  CSS and SVG as languages exist, but the support for them does not.  Therefore, it <em>should be</em> possible to use images to create text effects and as long as those images have alt-text a site can claim WCAG 1.0 AA Conformance.

I agree that this is a fair summary of the position I have been
holding, and probably a better synopsis than anything I have
yet produced to date. :)

>I propose we add the following to the errata:
>3.1 When an appropriate markup language exists, use markup rather than images to convey information. [Priority 2] For example, use MathML to mark up mathematical equations, and style sheets to format text and control layout. Also, avoid using images to represent text -- use text and style sheets instead -- except for logos and stylized navigation buttons used to create a distinctive look to a site.

Well, I won't go into the problems of using MathML (except to say
that insisting MathML be used _instead_ of an image is downright
madness), but I assume that the new part is the "-- except for the
logos" -- right?

I would say "except when a result cannot be reliably achieved through
style sheets, such as specific branding or logo requirements."

-- 
Kynn Bartlett  <kynn@idyllmtn.com>                    http://kynn.com/
Director of Accessibility, Edapta               http://www.edapta.com/
Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain Internet   http://www.idyllmtn.com/
AWARE Center Director                      http://www.awarecenter.org/
Accessibility Roundtable Web Broadcast           http://kynn.com/+on24
What's on my bookshelf?                         http://kynn.com/books/

Received on Monday, 16 October 2000 16:14:38 UTC