Re: Conformance in WCAG 2.0

At 3:24 PM -0500 12/15/00, Leonard R. Kasday wrote:
>If we postpone the discussion of compliance, we have to make 
>absolutely sure that we keep compliance issues out of the discussion 
>until then.  Based on what I heard on the last call, I believe we 
>are, but I'm writing this just to make sure we all have the same 
>understanding.

I'm not sure if we have the same type of understanding of
"compliance issues."

>For example, even though we need to consider at some point how hard 
>it is for web site designers to follow certain guidelines, and how 
>acceptable they will be to designers, these considerations must have 
>absolutely no explicit or implict influence on Guidelines, or on 
>Techniques.  We have to put all that into the compliance rules.

I don't agree here, so maybe this -is- the time to discuss the
compliance schemes.

>It's just like ADA.  When you're describing how hard it is for 
>someone to get up a ramp, it's irrelevant how difficult or 
>historically aesthetic it is to construct the ramp.    Difficulty of 
>construction and historic aesthetics only enters when you're 
>determining compliance rules for building the ramp.

With all due respect to the people here, I think that directly comparing
this to the ADA is going to lead us down the wrong path entirely.  ADA
specifications and WCAG -guidelines- are different things, -and- are
created in a far different manner than what we're doing here.

I'm very worried that there is a huge disconnect between our process
and our goals. I would bring this up to Judy and the WAI coordination
group but I'm not sure they want to hear about more disorder in the
WCAG group. :)

Maybe I just have a different view of "guidelines".  If we are
setting governmental specifications -- like the ADA specs -- then
we really need a different name, _and_ a far different process than
the one we have now.  I am not convinced that the current processes
used in WCAG are appropriate for the type of legislation-style
crafting of guidelines that you are proposing.

--Kynn

PS:  Can anyone point me to a good reference -- preferably on the
      web -- that explains how ADA specifications are and were
      drafted?  Is that really what we are doing here?  Does the
      ADA process generally consist of allowing whatever people
      who show up off the street write the guidelines?  (Near as I
      can tell there are few restrictions on who joins the WCAG
      working group.)

-- 
Kynn Bartlett <kynn@idyllmtn.com>
http://www.kynn.com/

Received on Friday, 15 December 2000 23:01:22 UTC