Re: Indexing

> fuzzy distinction between "difficult" and "impossible" that
> separate P1 from P2.

I think good indexing is currently near to impossible
(implementation-wise), but is getting closer to being difficult every day
(look at UWIMP...), so it should probably end up as a P1 guideline. Of
course, that's ignoring all of the debates about what kind of priority
levels WCAG 2.0 is going to have...
[FWIW: I don't think that anything like WCAG is ever going to have more
than about 5 levels of priority: it's hard enough getting people to agree
on three...but I unnecessarily digress]

> I _do_ agree that indexes, searchability, meta-content, should
> be a guideline/requirement.

I think that WL's "indexing" notion is roughly analogous to adding simple
content defining metadata as envisaged by the inclusion of the <meta>
elements in HTML, but allowing extension to include upcoming data models
(RDF etc.). Dublin Core is a good link, as it is a one dimensional form of
RDF metadata: comparable to a recasting of what one can achieve with the
<meta> elements into RDF. (and one can trasform the said <meta> elements
into Dublin Core; references available upon request).
I loved your "Amanda" example:-

>     As she clicks on the link, her browser queries the travel site,
>     requesting a self-reported WAI conformance claim (which is
>     stored via RDF in a file on a standard place on the server,
>     e.g. /wcag.rdf in the root directory).

This is an excellent example of what tomorrows Web could/should be like
[N.B. How many people are gonna be spending time writing up WAI conformance
claims by hand? None: so one for ERT to cover.], and clearly shows a WAI
aim. If servers could be made to automatically generate, store, and update
a conformance claim(s) (EDL?) that is queryable by a browser, it should
increase accessibility enourmously.
I'm pretty sure that indexing and general metadata related checkpoint(s)
should be explicitly defined in WCAG 2.0...

Kindest Regards,
Sean B. Palmer
http://uwimp.com/
http://infomesh.net/sbp/
"Perhaps, but let's not get bogged down in semantics."
   - Homer J. Simpson, BABF07.

Received on Saturday, 23 December 2000 18:35:57 UTC