Staw Polls vs votes and TO DOs for test suites

To avoid confusion, lets not use 'vote' and 'poll' together. 

Polling is done to get an idea where people are and has no validity beyond
that  --  and does not directly constitute a decision of any kind.  

Voting on the other hand does and needs to be done very carefully and
according to proper procedures.  

So - straw polls to see if most people agree or not (so we don't spend all
our time discussing things we agree on and can ask or identify differences)
is very useful - but should not be confused with a decision making process.
Confusion around this has caused some disruption in the past.   So please
talk about "participating in straw polls"  not voting.   Thanks. 


RE the test suites,  all decisions on what is in or out  - or what the role
of test suite(s) is/are - are all open questions right now.  So no-one
should get too worried or committed to any of this in its current form.
Chris put out a good memo on this 



So at this point what we need is 
a lot of people 
- looking at the tests that we have, 
- making comments on them so we can capture them,
- identifying tests that are missing
- making suggestions for wording on current and missing test.


Thanks much.
 
Gregg

 -- ------------------------------ 
Gregg C Vanderheiden Ph.D. 
Professor - Ind. Engr. & BioMed Engr.
Director - Trace R & D Center 
University of Wisconsin-Madison 


-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org] On Behalf
Of Chris Ridpath
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 1:51 PM
To: WAI WCAG List
Subject: Tests 3, 4, 6, 16, 178


The working group has been wrestling with the process of accepting or
rejecting the individual tests that make up the WCAG2 test suite but
progress has been slow. We still need to look at about 200 tests by March
2005 in order for the suite to be published by mid 2005.

Our process is to discuss the tests on the list and then vote for
acceptance/rejection/modification at our "straw poll" site [1]. (You must be
a member of the working group to vote in the poll.) Tests will be selected
for discussion based upon their HTML element. We'll start by discussing
tests for the IMG element.

When considering a test for inclusion in the suite, here are some points to
think about:

- The language of the test must be clear and easy to understand.
- The level of the test must be correct (level 1, level 2 or level 3).
- The test must map to the correct technique.
- A person with limited HTML and accessibility training can give a clear
pass/fail rating for the test.
- The test detects an accessibility problem.
- If you fail the test you fail the Success Criteria.
- If you fail the test there is not an alternative that is as accessible.

Currently, the working group has accepted just one test - IMG element must
have an ALT attribute [2]. Here are the next tests we will be working on:

Alt text should be short:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/tests/test3.html

Important images should not have empty Alt text:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/tests/test4.html

Decorative images should have empty Alt text:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/tests/test16.html

Alt text should not be placeholder text:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/tests/test6.html

Alt text must be a meaningful alternative for the image:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/tests/test178.html

Please take a look at these tests and post your comments regarding
acceptance into the suite.

Cheers,
Chris

[1] http://www.w3.org/2002/09/wbs/35422/testsuite1/
[2] http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/tests/test1.html

Received on Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:31:53 UTC