Re: [#828] Definition of foreground and background

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Cooper" <michaelc@watchfire.com>
To: "WAI GL (E-mail)" <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Sent: Monday, June 21, 2004 7:58 PM
Subject: [#828] Definition of foreground and background



The techniques working group was looking at Guideline 1.4 [1] and trying
to
figure out what HTML techniques we would create. We weren't sure that
the
definition of "foreground" and "background" was clear enough for us to
write
techniques to. Is foreground text and background everything else? Can an
image be foreground or background, and if so what's the rule for
determining when
it's which? What if there is text in a background image? We need a
definition for
these terms in the guidelines.

A starting proposal:
Foreground: primary content intended for the user.
Background: decorative or ancillary visual elements that is co-presented
with
foreground content, with the background generally appearing "behind" the
foreground, but not itself part of the semantic content of the page.


Roberto Scano:
>From WebOpedia...

Foreground (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/f/foreground.html): the
foreground consists of the characters and pictures that appear on the
screen.

Background (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/background.html) : The area
of a display screen not covered by characters and graphics.

So my suggestion, for the WCAG document, are:

Foreground: primary content (characters, pictures, audio) that contain
elements that are important for the user.
Background: secondary content (characters, pictures, audio) that contain
elements that are decorative or accessory for the user.

Btw, in Michael suggestion I prefer to use "accessory" instead of
"ancillary".

Roberto Scano
IWA/HWG

Received on Monday, 21 June 2004 14:14:41 UTC