[3.1][2.4] Informative page titles: suggested solution

Hi list,

On the agenda for tomorrow's meeting is:
<agenda>
Item 3: [#830] Requirement for page title should be level 2 or level 1
Introduction by: Michael Cooper
<http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-gl/2004AprJun/0726.html>
* Guideline 2.4 has a level 3 SC that says, among other things, a document
title was considered. TTF thought providing the title should simply be
expected, not considered. Also guideline 3.2 has a level 2 SC that page
titles should be informative. Requirement to provide title should be at
least as high as requirement to make it informative.
* Question whether all forms of content have a titlable "page" to which this
can be applied
</agenda>

I think this issue can be solved by adapting the text of 3.1, level 2, SC 1.

Current phrase:
Page titles are informative

Suggested phrase:
All pages have informative titles

The difference is that the current wording says that if you have page
titles, they should be informative. The second phrasing says that all pages
should have a title and that it should be informative (so it's a tougher
requirement to meet). 

If we adopt this phrasing, we can delete guideline 2.4, level 3, SC 4 item c
(Supplying an informative title for each page or resource that can be
accessed independently (for example, from a search results page).

I think "all pages have informative titles" should be at least at level 2,
perhaps even at level 1, because of the significance of the page title in
orienting yourself in content. If you have crappy link text but informative
page titles, at least you'll know that you ended up in the wrong place. 

Yvette Hoitink
Heritas, Enschede, the Netherlands
E-mail: y.p.hoitink@heritas.nl
WWW: http://www.heritas.nl

Received on Wednesday, 7 July 2004 07:30:10 UTC