RE: [tech] information architecture for interweiving WCAG documents

Folks,

This discussion reminds me that I ought to mention how GEO is currently
managing its techniques documents.  We have recently made some changes to
our approach compared to the early discussions we had with [tech] folks.

The key driver for our changes was the splitting of our Authoring Techniques
for XHTML & HTML Internationalization[1] into 3 smaller topic-focussed
documents[2] after the Tech Plenary.  We will add more documents as material
becomes available.

Old approach: We had XML 'repositories' that contained a loose bag of
techniques - one repository for XHTML/HTML, one for CSS, and potentially one
that was not technology-specific.  We used XSLT to combine appropriate parts
of appropriate techniques into the XHTML document 'Authoring Techniques for
XHTML & HTML Internationalization'[1].  An XML 'view' template was used to
create the intended techniques document structure, but a subset of the
detail was taken from techniques in the repository and this information was
reorganised slightly during the process. We then ran XSLT on the techniques
document we had produced to create an XHTML outline view[3] and a
resources-only view - these therefore had exactly the same structure as the
techniques doc.  Users linked from the outline to the techniques doc on a
section-by-section basis using icons.

New approach: We have 3 techniques documents[2] we aim to take to Note
status (more will come later), each created in XML by hand and containing
techniques specific to a particular topic. They have their own structure and
headings - whatever is most appropriate for the topic.  We no longer have
the former repositories.  The XML documents are converted to XHTML using
XSLT, which selects the appropriate information from each technique for the
XHTML format, and reorganises it slightly.  The outline[4] still exists
(it's in development) but its structure and headings are created by hand,
rather than by XSLT (so this is now the 'view' template). It groups together
appropriate techniques from all appropriate techniques documents into a
structure that is currently quite similar to the order in the documents
themselves, but does not need to be, and it may re-use a given technique in
more than one place.  People link from the outline to the appropriate
techniques document on a technique-by-technique basis by clicking on the
technique text.

So the general ideas haven't really changed - wrt information levelling -
but the implementation has changed somewhat.  This was forced by having
split up the original doc into several pieces, but actually I feel much
happier with this approach for a number of reasons.  It's easier to work
with, and allows for greater flexibility.

Hope that's of some help,
RI



[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/i18n-html-tech/
[2] http://www.w3.org/International/publications.html
[3] http://www.w3.org/TR/i18n-html-tech/outline/html-authoring-outline.html
[4]
http://www.w3.org/International/geo/html-tech/outline/html-authoring-outline
.html


============
Richard Ishida
W3C

contact info:
http://www.w3.org/People/Ishida/ 

W3C Internationalization:
http://www.w3.org/International/ 
 
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org 
> [mailto:w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Wendy A Chisholm
> Sent: 23 April 2004 20:45
> To: David MacDonald; w3c-wai-gl@w3.org; caldwell@trace.wisc.edu
> Cc: shawn@w3.org
> Subject: Re: [tech] information architecture for interweiving 
> WCAG documents
> 
> 
> Hello David,
> 
> Thank you for contacting Ken.
> 
> Ken says:
> >Pretty succinct advice: manage the information as a whole and write 
> >stylesheets to aggregate and/or syndicate the information from/to 
> >different publications.  When I say "whole" I don't mean 
> "one big XML 
> >file" but syndicate "one XML file per thematic collection of raw 
> >information" for independent publications and using XSLT to 
> aggregate 
> >from all necessary collections when building a piece of the output.
> 
> For more information about the XML and XSLT that we are using 
> refer to the list at the end of this message [1].  I think we 
> have a good handle on XML and XSLT, but we need help 
> designing how we present the information.  We need help 
> answering:  What are the different ways people will use the 
> information?  How should we design the presentation and flow 
> so that people can easily find the information they are looking for?
> 
> I took an action item to talk with Shawn Henry who is 
> facilitating the WAI Web Site Redesign Project [0].  The task 
> force is using a user-centered design process [2] to redesign 
> the WAI Web site. I would like the WCAG WG to use a similar 
> process to design the suite of documents that support WCAG 2.0.
> 
> Best,
> --wendy
> 
> [0] http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/2003/redesign.html
> [1] all of these are available from: 
> http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/wcag20.html#techs
> techniques dtd: 
> http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/sources/xmlspec-tech.dtd
> xslt to generate techniques documents: 
> http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/sources/xmlspec-tech.xsl
> xslt to generate wcag 2.0: 
> http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/sources/wcag2gl.xsl
> source for html techniques: 
> http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/sources/html-tech-src.xml
> source for css techniques: 
> http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/2002/08/css-tech.xml
> source for techs gateway: 
> http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/sources/gateway-tech-src.xml
> [2] http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/2003/ucd
> 
> -- 
> 
> wendy a chisholm
> world wide web consortium
> web accessibility initiative
> http://www.w3.org/WAI/
> /-- 
>

Received on Monday, 26 April 2004 10:12:54 UTC