Re: Content vs User Agent question

At 07:54 PM 2001-09-18 , Loretta Guarino Reid wrote:
>Perhaps the border is getting fuzzy to me because scripting really changes
the

>nature of content. Are our guidelines starting to require scripting, at the 
>same time that we are wrestling with how to make it accessible? Or perhaps 
>these only become issues when someone is using scripting?
>

AG:: 

This is not so much an answer as some background.

Interactive content, whether created by scripting or Applets or VRML, means
that the content is entering a space of interactive behavior which it shares
with the browser functions that apply to all content.

So yes, they are getting more similar.  The model either to separate them
clearly or blend them effectively is not necessarily known or agreed at this
time.

People in the research community are working on this.  For example in the Call
for Papers of the ACM Symposium on Applied Computing

 The 17th ACM Symposium on Applied Computing
 Track on: Virtual Reality, Digital Media, and Computer Games
 
 March 10 - 14, 2002, Madrid, Spain

<http://www.nicve.salford.ac.uk/sac2002>http://www.nicve.salford.ac.uk/sac20
02 

it says...

   Special Track on Virtual Reality, Digital Media, and Computer Games

   The distinctions between virtual reality, animation, and computer
   games are blurring, and there is growing convergence between their
   media; Internet, Television broadcasting, consoles, film, wireless
   devices, and Interactive TV. Research and development in these fields
   is making rapid progress, due to their inherent attraction for diverse
   areas such as education, e-commerce, entertainment and computer games,
   heritage, telecommunications, engineering, film and other media.
   Authors are invited to submit original papers on these converging
   fields.

There have been discussions inside W3C which reflect a recognition that there
is work to be done in this area in one way or another.  These may result in
charters for more work, but I would not stop considering what we need and need
to do on that account.

I also have some hope that the ACE-Grid group will make some contributions to
this area.

 http://www-unix.gridforum.org/mail_archive/ace-grid/msg00026.html

In the mean time, we may have a problem trying to figure out what to do if we
work the Protocol and Format requirements, the User Agent, Author Tool, and
Content Guidelines all separately from one another.

In notes for today's WAI Coordination Group call, I wondered if the
"recognition of structure in support of intrapage navigation" and "interactive
behavior" issues each might deserve its own Working Group or
Working-group-like
unit of work.  The point being to take a small enough topic so that all the
techniques could be laid out on the table side by side to see which address a
given problem most effectively, and where we need to support some
redundancy in
techniques to provide a migration path. 

The CG has not dealt with this item, it will take some time to mull it over.. 
Please think if there are issues are that are inextricably intertwined with
User Agent behavior, or are otherwise intensely dependent on looking at User
Agent and Author Tool methods at once, in order to evaluate candidate plans
for
formats and their use.

Al

>I was presenting UAAG and WCAG in a talk, and I realized that the borders
are 
>getting very fuzzy to me. In particular, some of the WCAG guidelines feel
like

>they are really UAAG guidelines (which may just mean I don't understand the 
>implications of the guidelines for content).
>
>For instance, providing text search as a navigation technique seems like
it is
>a UA issue, not a content issue. We don't really expect the content to
provide

>the search function, do we? It does need to present text that is searchable.
>
>And can the guidelines addressing change in context (checkpoint 2.3 and 2.4) 
>be addressed by content, or can they only be addressed at the UA level? Does 
>the content let the user configure how long they have for a timed response? 
>Can the content handle input errors like misspellings?
>
>Perhaps the border is getting fuzzy to me because scripting really changes
the

>nature of content. Are our guidelines starting to require scripting, at the 
>same time that we are wrestling with how to make it accessible? Or perhaps 
>these only become issues when someone is using scripting?
>
> Loretta
>

Received on Tuesday, 18 September 2001 21:58:00 UTC