Errata, Updates, and Second Editions (was: [#259] Proposal: remove default form text requirements)

Kibitzing.  (My way of indicating that I'm just an informed spectator,
not a WG member.)

On Friday, May 30, 2003, at 07:49 AM, Michael Cooper wrote:
> 2. Since this guideline is no longer relevant and fulfilling it is 
> sometimes
> problematic for Web pages that otherwise conform to WCAG 1.0, it is
> desirable to remove it from WCAG 1.0. We will therefore issue an 
> erratum to
> WCAG 1.0.

"Erratum" seems a bad choice for an update which was planned from the
start -- the phrasing "Until user agents handle empty controls 
correctly ..."
indicates that this is not a mistake per se, but a simple update.

Accordingly, I think that this -- and any other "until user agent" 
clauses
which are being phased out -- should be issued not as errata but as
updates, perhaps as "WCAG 1.0 (Second Edition)" just as XHTML 1.0
was released in 2000 and a Section Edition in 2002.
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/

This, I think, would make more sense to Web developers who have been
working with WCAG 1.0 for years and would be startled to learn that
there was an _error_ in the original.  Truth is, there wasn't -- so this
should be presented as a natural update, not a bugfix.  The 
circumstances
of the checkpoint changed, but the checkpoint's validity (given broken
assistive technology/UIs) did not.

Also, as a bonus, this could easily lead to more attention to WCAG
1.0 (and ultimately to WCAG 2.0) through the issuance of the Second
Edition than a mere erratum issue would provide.  The actual work
would be minimal -- simply folding in the additional updates and
errata which have already been identified by the working group.

--Kynn

--
Kynn Bartlett <kynn@idyllmtn.com>                     http://kynn.com
Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain                http://idyllmtn.com
Author, CSS in 24 Hours                       http://cssin24hours.com
Inland Anti-Empire Blog                      http://blog.kynn.com/iae
Shock & Awe Blog                           http://blog.kynn.com/shock

Received on Friday, 30 May 2003 11:39:50 UTC