Don't require <Q>

WCAG 1.0 requires <Q> for markup of short quotations.   Here's the requirement:

Mark up quotations. Do not use quotation markup for formatting effects such 
as indentation. [Priority 2] For example, in HTML, use the Q and BLOCKQUOTE 
elements to markup short and longer quotations, respectively.

However, Q is not rendered by MSIE 5, Netscape 4.73, or Opera 3.62 
(although it is rendered in Amaya 4.1 and AOLPress 2.0).  Examples are 
shown in [1].

Lynx renders Q, but it merely turns in into a quotation mark so it doesn't 
matter for Lynx.

So if people follow this guideline then most people using visual browsers 
miss the quotes.  If people redundantly use Q and quotation marks, then 
people using compliant browsers such as Amaya and AOLPress get double 
quotes.  Either way, bad news.

I suggest an erratum that omits Q from this requirement.  Alternatively, 
say that Q is omitted till all browsers render them.   Either of these is 
fine with me, and I hope we can settle this fast.

It seems like a small thing, but strictly speaking it stops good pages from 
getting a double A rating.

Len


[1] http://astro.temple.edu/~kasday/wai/quotes/index.html
--
Leonard R. Kasday, Ph.D.
Institute on Disabilities/UAP and Dept. of Electrical Engineering at Temple 
University
(215) 204-2247 (voice)                 (800) 750-7428 (TTY)
http://astro.temple.edu/~kasday         mailto:kasday@acm.org

Chair, W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Evaluation and Repair Tools Group
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/

The WAVE web page accessibility evaluation assistant: 
http://www.temple.edu/inst_disabilities/piat/wave/

Received on Monday, 15 January 2001 18:05:15 UTC