Re: Browser characteristics

Hmm. The WAP forum sstates publibcly that they expect the next version of WML
to be more or less the same as XHTML basic.

I would like us to be able to use tables. I think we need to heavily push the
use of assistive technologies such as tablin, in order to make this
reasonable. I propose that the issue of who tracks that go to the
coordination group.

I agree that scripting would be very valuable. We need to determine still
whether there is scripting support realisitically available. In particular, I
have come across a lot of people using script-capable software but turning
off the scripting becuase it interferes with their assistive technology, or
because the operation of scripts is too disorienting. I am still hopeful that
by the time these guidelines become a Recommendation this will have changed.

I still believe that it is important that a solution is more or less freely
available - particularly for countries where the cost of a computer is in
fact higher than the cost of expertise to make it work. (In the USA, the cost
of a computer is a small fraction of the cost of that expertise. In Vietnam,
the cost of the expertise is a small fraction of the cost of the computer.
And as a result of recent history there are a lot of people with disabilities
in Vietnam.)

cheers

Charles


On Tue, 28 Nov 2000, Cynthia Shelly wrote:

  Here's my very tardy action item on browser characteristics.  I hope it will
  help in our discussion of user agent capabilities on Thursday's call.

  I think WCAG 1.0 implies that all browsers support the following

  Rendering of HTML 2.0 or greater
  Link following via http GET
  links in the http:// and mailto: formats
  <img> and alt
  Form submission via http GET and http POST

  We've assumed that all these features are present, yet some early browsers
  did not support forms or mailto.  Remember when HTML authoring guides used
  to admonish authors to put an email link on all forms?  And, just in case
  they also didn't support mailto,  to put a cut-and-paste-able email address
  on there too?
  There are no guidelines about this in WCAG 1.0, so we've obviously drawn a
  line about backward compatibility.

  A fair bit of time has passed since WCAG 1.0 was created, and it may be time
  to move that line.  I offer for your consideration two features that are
  widely supported in mainstream browsers.  I am limiting this to HTML
  browsers, not WAP phones, as a believe that WAP/WML and HTML will always be
  separate final-format renderings created from some single data source.

  1.)
  Some form of scripting.  It would be very useful to be able to offer
  techniques for making scripts directly accessible.  Yet, WCAG 1.0 says that
  you shouldn't do anything in script that you can't also do in noscript tag.
  This rules out a lot of useful features, so of which may even make a page
  more accessible to a user with a browser and accessibility aid that support
  it.  There are browsers for all major platforms (including Windows CE
  handheld devices) that support these forms of scripting.
  Here's one possible way to define minimal script support:
  *	ECMAscript (standards-based javascript)
  *	some level of Document Object Model accessible by script (maybe the
  intersection of script supported by netscape 3 and the DOM level-1 spec?)
  *	links in the javascript: format

  2.)
  tables, including nesting.  Note that this does not remove the requirement
  that tables linearize well for voice rendering.  It just moves the onus to
  the assistive technology instead of the author.

  On a somewhat related topic, we should spend some time considering what to
  do about accessibility features that have been implemented in some browsers
  and not others.  For example, IE 5 has implemented tabindex, accesskey,
  label,  and other accessibility features that degrade gracefully on other
  browsers.  It would be nice to see some techniques that say "use this spiffy
  new feature" instead of "don't use this crumby old feature".




-- 
Charles McCathieNevile    mailto:charles@w3.org    phone: +61 (0) 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative                      http://www.w3.org/WAI
Location: I-cubed, 110 Victoria Street, Carlton VIC 3053, Australia
September - November 2000:
W3C INRIA, 2004 Route des Lucioles, BP 93, 06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

Received on Wednesday, 29 November 2000 10:31:30 UTC