Doctype and Assistive Technologies

To The Group -

I know full-well that web pages need to have a declared Doctype to conform
to the WCAG guidelines.  I also know that the Doctype tells user agents
(generally speaking, web browsers) how to act and present the content based
upon any given pages Doctype.  I also realize that a Doctype is needed (in
most cases, I think) for the parsing of pages such that automated tools can
be used to check for accessibility.  Given what I know - here's what I am
wanting to find out:

Can anyone tell me instances of assistive technologies NOT working because
there was no declared Doctype?  Is it becoming more or less important to
have Doctypes declared as the first set of instructions that user agents and
assistive technologies will encounter?  If a web page conforms to a
particular Doctype but it's not declared in the code of the page, what might
likely happen to the browser or assistive technology accessing the page?

I was asked these questions and felt that additional answers might be
helpful.  Thanks for you help.

Doyle Burnett


Doyle Burnett
Education and Training Specialist
Multiple Disabilities Program
Special Education Service Agency
dburnett@sesa.org
Www.sesa.org
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Received on Tuesday, 17 February 2004 19:35:52 UTC