Re: RE: RE: RE: Impact Analysis for Guideline 4.2

> Loretta wrote (in response to Gregg):
> <blockquote>
> I think the screen reader access would need to be provided by the user
> agent for the technology in which you 
> are creating the user interface. So this question would definitely
> affect baseline 
> </blockquote>Hmmm. I don't think I understand this. There seems to be an
> implied separation between the user agent and the screen reader that
> makes the user agent *responsible* somehow for providing screen reader
> functionality? Am I reading that right?

Strictly speaking, from a UAAG conformance claim perspective, the browser/screen reader combination would 
be considered a single User Agent. You would make claims to satisfy the Speech contenet type of UAAG based 
on their combined functionality. But I don't think this implicit inclusion of assistive technology is obvious when 
we refer to user agents, so I have been calling out the assistive technology explicitly.

Section 508 fundamentally requires that the browser/software application provide support for APIs that would 
enable assistive technology to support it. But it doesn't actually require that there exist assistive technology that 
does support it. I think we are suggesting that all pieces of the software chain be considered when selecting 
baseline technologies.

Received on Wednesday, 6 April 2005 04:56:33 UTC