Influence of valid code

<http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-gl/2004JanMar/0087.html>

>>Is validity an accessibility issue?
>>
>>The need to use technologies according to specification is a 
>>broader issue than most of the guidelines in WCAG. In issue 572 as 
>>well as on the mailinglist, people have wondered whether this 
>>guideline should be in WCAG because they feel it's not about 
>>accessibility. Others have argued that valid markup increases the 
>>chances of correct rendering of the content which directly benefits 
>>accessibility.

I canvassed the makers of Two Leading Screen Readers. Take a wild 
guess as to which two.

>[Product 1] does tend to behave better with valid code because the 
>browser behaves better with valid code. Take, for example, tables. 
>Invalid table code may cause tables to be rendered incorrectly, 
>thereby causing [Product 1] to read them incorrectly. Since we get 
>information about the page directly from the DOM, if the DOM is 
>invalid, the information we're presenting to the user has the 
>potential to be invalid as well. Ideally, if the DOM is correct, we 
>will be correct.

And:

>The developer who handles the html code states that valid html is 
>very important for screen readers as working around it is one of our 
>greatest hassles.
>
>As for the specific elements and attributes supported by [Product 
>2], I will have a comprehensive list available by mid-February. Our 
>documentation team is working on some training materials for making 
>accessible web sites and this will be a portion of their effort.


-- 

     Joe Clark | joeclark@joeclark.org | <http://joeclark.org/access/>
     Author, _Building Accessible Websites_ | <http://joeclark.org/book/>
     Expect criticism if you top-post

Received on Wednesday, 4 February 2004 21:13:44 UTC