Re: Erratum proposal

Hi Wendy,

My 2 cents. I believe that we could use the strict interpretation for 
WCAG 2.0, but then the checkpoint shall forbid for some compliance level 
Transitional Grammars, and state clearly "use only strict grammars of 
the latest version of the markup."

However, for WCAG 1.0, I see things differently and agree with Michael's 
view (bearing in mind I am not an official WG member). There is out 
there a lot of valid 4.01 Transitional with some harmless (for 
accessibility) deprecated elements or attributes. For instance, I agree 
with the fact that for <font>, *avoid* shall be translated to *do not 
use*. But what about <center>, or the attribute align, or <dir>? I don't 
see any harm to accessibility on those (say level AA). Probably we shall 
be more specific in what to avoid (sorry, do not use!), and what could 
be allowed.

Regards,
carlos

Wendy A Chisholm wrote:
> 
> I found the old issues lists, went through some old minutes, and found 
> contradictory interpretations of "Avoid deprecated features."
> 
> I propose the following erratum to WCAG 1.0:
> 10. Avoid deprecated features
> Added: DD MM YYYY.
> Type: Clarification
> Refers to: Checkpoint 11.2 of 5 May 1999 version
> Description (and correction). The checkpoint says, "Avoid deprecated 
> features of W3C technologies" but it is not clear if "avoid" means "do 
> not use at all" or "use only when absolutely necessary."  Since this is 
> a Priority 2 checkpoint, the stricter interpretation applies and it 
> should be read as, "Do not use deprecated features of W3C 
> technologies."  Deprecated features may be used in a site that claims 
> conformance at Level A.  Level AA requires more work, including 
> replacing deprecated features with updated technology.
> ---
> 
> The other checkpoints that use the word "avoid" are also Prioirty 2 
> except: "7.1 Until user agents allow users to control flickering, avoid 
> causing the screen to flicker. [Priority 1]"  There are a variety of 
> issues with this checkpoint ("until user agents...," how to test for 
> flicker, what do we mean by "avoid.").  This is a separate issue and 
> should not impact the clarification of 11.2.
> 
> ---
...

-- 
Dr Carlos A Velasco - mailto:Carlos.Velasco@fit.fraunhofer.de
Fraunhofer-Institut für Angewandte Informationstechnik (FIT.LIFE)
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Received on Thursday, 5 June 2003 13:33:29 UTC