Re: 5.2

Two points to consider,

I think a big part of the picture is comparing non disabled access, with disabled access. If someone wants to develop only for one platform then I think , at least at a P1 level -that that is fine. However is that still OK when the non disabled access is not platform dependent but the accessible access is platform dependent? I think not. Let me give an theoretical example. A site can be viewed on Mac and Windows, however the accessibility is dependent on a windows API so no Mac assistive technology can work with it.


We do not consider it likely that many people will go to AAA conformance. level 3 criteria will not ensure that no one slips through the loopholes

Therefore anything that is pivotal to accessibility (and is testable ect..) should not be there.


I also want to apologize for reopening this discussion. I had not considered the issue of platform dependence, until I was asked to retrofit a platform dependent site.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Lee Roberts 
  To: 'John Slatin' ; jasonw@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au 
  Cc: w3c-wai-gl@w3.org 
  Sent: Sunday, December 29, 2002 10:29 PM
  Subject: RE: 5.2



  IE5.5 for Windows and IE5.0 for Mac operate with the basically the same
  engine.  Although IE for Mac has been created from the ground up, many
  of the features it supports are IE only features.  I'm not pointing out
  the "skin" or the user-adjustable features - I'm referring to the way IE
  supports JavaScript and XML.  Those two features take us beyond the
  surface of the browser and put us into the supporting engine.  The two
  browsers are only different in the way they handle CSS with IE for Mac
  being much better than IE for Windows.  So, in my opinion they would not
  be separate implementations - rationale: we could say that because IE5.0
  and IE6.0 are so different in how they handle CSS that they are separate
  implementations when they are not separate, but only an improvement on
  the previous version.

  If we go with a focus upon assistive technologies that then causes
  problems for people with other browsers.  As with the javascript
  example, two pages served based upon how the browser identifies itself,
  we still leave out a considerable percentage of individuals that chose
  to not be burdened by the problems of the more common browsers.  As for
  the developer that doesn't have the technologies, a simple visit to a
  library for the blind will help with that issue.  Additionally, I refer
  to friends and usenet groups on a lot of things that I can't check
  because I have a small shop and don't have the money to spend on all the
  technologies.  I feel that if I can do this then so can the other
  developers.

  Robust would refer more directly to the technologies used to provide the
  content.  While the technology may work in one browser, user agent, or
  assistive technology, that technology may not be operable in another
  browser, user agent, or assistive technology.  I perceive our goal here
  as ensuring that the technology used works in more than one user agent
  and assistive technology as Guideline 5 directs.  This would remove the
  possibility of misunderstanding leading to people considering Internet
  Explorer, Netscape, or Opera as assistive technologies.

  At this point, I'm proposing we add a level 3 success criteria of: "An
  alternate method of providing the content be used for browsers, user
  agents, and assistive technologies that can not support the technologies
  required."  This will ensure that no one slips through the loopholes we
  may have inadvertently left open due to short-sightedness or
  improvements in one technology over another.

  Lee


  John Slatin's Questions:
  What Jason writes (see below) prompts another pair of questions:

  1. What constitutes an "implementation" in the sense of the term as used
  here? Is IE 5.5 for Windows a *different* implementation than IE 5.0 for
  Macintosh?  If I understand Lee correctly, he would say "No-- these are
  merely two instantiations of the same implementation."  But I'm not sure
  whether Jason would agree-- and I'm not sure where I stand either, given
  the amount of time Web developers have to spend to ensure that their
  content works correctly on both Windows and Mac.

  2. If "interoperable" means, in essence, that mainstream technologies
  "used by the content" must be compatible with assistive technologies
  used by people with disabilities, (a) can we say that in some reasonably
  concrete form instead of using such high-level abstractions? and (b) how
  can Joe and Josephine Web Developer know if they meet this criterion if
  they don't have access to a wide variety of assistive technologies?

  A third question just popped into my head: are we engaging in circular
  reasoning in the way we talk about interoperability here? It's my
  understanding that "Robust" (our keyword for the principle expressed by
  Guideline 5) might be translated as "Interoperable."  If that's correct,
  then we can't use the word "interoperable" in checkpoints or success
  criteria whose purpose is to define what "interoperable" means.

  John
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: "Jason White" <jasonw@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au>
  To: "John Slatin" <john_slatin@forum.utexas.edu>
  Cc: "'Lee Roberts'" <leeroberts@roserockdesign.com>; <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
  Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2002 6:34 PM
  Subject: Re: 5.2


  > John Slatin writes:
  >  >
  >  > Here's a slight reworking that does little more than simplify the
  syntax:
  >  > == John's reworking of Jason's text==
  >
  > This is good. My original wording wasn't, in any case, intended as a
  >   proposal for inclusion in a draft but only as initial text for
  >   the purposes of mailing list discussion.
  >  >
  >  > Questions:
  >  > What does "interoperable" mean in the sentence "There exist 
  > multiple,  > independent, and interoperable implementations of the 
  > technologies used
  by
  >  > the content"?
  >
  > I don't know whether the W3C has a standard definition of the term, 
  > but essentially it means that there are no problems of conformance of 
  > the different implementations to the specification that would give 
  > rise to compatibility problems.  >
  >  > Does content meet 5.2 if it works in Internet Explorer on both
  Windows
  and
  >  > Macintosh but not in Netscape/Mozilla?
  >
  > 5.2 is concerned with the technologies used by the content, not with
  >   the content itself. Thus the question at level 2, as currently
  >   proposed, is not whether the content
  >   "works" with different implementations, but whether it uses
  >   technologies that are supported by multiple implementations. If
  >   content used technologies in such a way that it would only "work"
  >   with one implementation then it wouldn't meet the proposed level 2
  >   success criterion. What is excluded is the situation in which the
  >   content is functional only with implementation x, whatever it may
  >   be.