Re: Outlet for Authors to override guidelines

> Not to be trite, but it appears to me that if an author wants to invoke
> personal preference that they simply not conform to WCAG. To be even
> more trite, the author may state "This site does not conform to WCAG
> because the author feels artistic freedom is more important than
> accessibility."

That sounds that blanket -- when creating Web sites, I observe several
things to be arranged. On the one hand, I want to create valid markup, on the
other hand, I want to create accessible and usable pages, and I want to create
pages usable in almost all browsers.

The third point (availability to all browsers) is something I sometimes
prefer in contradiction to accessibility, so I rather pass on 200,000 people with
a special kind of disability than passing on e.g. 700,000 Netscape 4.x users
-- anyhow I'm creating accessible pages, too. And in comparison, I feel
right.

I didn't show specific examples (because I didn't want to write this post
yet), but I hope you see the point. Sometimes there might be reasons to develop
not the entire way the WCAG suggests, but this is not inevitably wrong (or
inaccessible). So there is no need to judge all people by ridiculing 'artistic
freedom'.


 Jens Meiert.



> 
> Not to be trite, but it appears to me that if an author wants to invoke
> personal preference that they simply not conform to WCAG. To be even
> more trite, the author may state "This site does not conform to WCAG
> because the author feels artistic freedom is more important than
> accessibility."
> 
> Chris Brainerd
> Instructional Designer
> Real Choices ACCESS
> Center on Disability Studies
> University of Hawaii
> Chris.brainerd@cds.hawaii.edu
> 808-956-9356
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Ridpath [mailto:chris.ridpath@utoronto.ca] 
> Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2003 6:30 AM
> To: Charles McCathieNevile
> Cc: WAI GL
> Subject: Re: [#293] Summary for tables
> 
> 
> 
> > >My argument is that we should, as much as possible, provide a way for
> 
> > >authors to override our guidelines while still keeping their pages 
> > >accessible.
> >
> 
> Not quite right. I should have expressed this as:
> 
> My argument is that we should, as much as possible, provide a way for
> authors to override our guidelines as long as they notify the audience.
> 
> Example 1:
> Guidelines say there must be good text/background contrast. Author uses
> yellow text on white background and states "I want this text to be
> difficult to read because of <some artistic reason>".
> 
> Example 2:
> Guidelines say there should be clear navigation.
> Author has porously confusing navigation and states "Navigation is
> confusing because I want you to wander around."
> 
> Example 3:
> Guidelines say content should be understandable.
> Author creates easily misunderstood content and states "I am an
> anarchist - deal with it."
> 
> Regarding the TH rule: If you really want to have THs in your layout
> table then you can. Just explicitly state that this is a layout table.
> 
> Chris
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Charles McCathieNevile" <charles@w3.org>
> To: "Chris Ridpath" <chris.ridpath@utoronto.ca>
> Cc: "WAI GL" <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
> Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2003 11:46 AM
> Subject: Re: [#293] Summary for tables
> 
> 
> > On Thu, 17 Jul 2003, Chris Ridpath wrote:
> >
> > >My argument is that we should, as much as possible, provide a way for
> 
> > >authors to override our guidelines while still keeping their pages 
> > >accessible.
> >
> > I don't understand this at all. If an author can contravene the 
> > guidelines and still produce accessible content surely the guidelines 
> > should be
> changed,
> > no?
> >
> > Chaals
> >
> 
> 


-- 
Jens Meiert

Steubenstr. 28
D-26123 Oldenburg

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Telefon +49 (0)441 99 86 147
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Mail <jens@meiert.com>
Internet <http://meiert.com>

Received on Tuesday, 22 July 2003 03:00:33 UTC