- From: Tim Boland <frederick.boland@nist.gov>
- Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 16:31:26 -0400
- To: w3c-wai-gl@w3.org
Thanks for doing this - I think may be good (if not already done) to investigate any and all pre-existing definitions of any of these terms within W3C (and possibly even outside W3C?), since I feel many of these terms may enjoy frequent usage (although possibly in different contexts), to see if any pre-existing definitions can be reused for WCAG purposes via reference (which I think may be beneficial for harmonization of W3C WGs/Activities?). If reuse is not possible, and WCAG specifications need to extend/modify pre-existing definitions, then perhaps WCAG documentation should include explanations of why any pre-existing definitions may need to be extended/modified to suit WCAG's purposes? BTW, QASpecGL [1] has a section on defining and using terminology, which mentions re-use in other specifications. Best wishes, Tim Boland NIST [1]: http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-qaframe-spec-20041122/#specify-conformance-need At 12:08 PM 4/20/2005 -0400, you wrote: >Note: These are "pre-proposals" and issues that I'd like feedback on >before continuing with my issue summary and proposals for Guideline 1.1 - >I want to gauge people's reactions to a few ideas before doing more work. >Guideline 1.1 is dependent on definitions that are in flux, therefore, >I've included draft definitions to tease out assumptions and >implications. I'm looking for feedback so that I can generate >proposals. To start, I am focusing only on Guideline 1.1, Level 1, SC 1 >"For all non-text content that is functional, such as graphical links or >buttons, text alternatives serve the same purpose as the non-text content." > >Issues: > > 1. No definitions for content or explicitly associated > 2. Proposed definitions for text, unicode seem fairly > uncontroversial, need to discuss/close [see below] > 3. Definition of "functionality" includes "convey information" and we > separate "provide function" from "convey information" in Guideline > 1.1 Level 1 Success Criteria 1 and 2. Therefore, either the SC > need to change or the definition of functionality needs to change. > 4. Non-text content definition has not been solidified (previous > proposals were controversial - partly because baseline wasn't > ironed out). Historically, we have shied away from including > widgets in the definition of non-text content to avoid Guideline > 1.1 requiring text alternatives for all widgets (i.e., to avoid > noscript for every script). However, I'd like to investigate the > idea of "widgets" as non-text content and how that relates to new > approaches with Guideline 4.2 and baseline. > >Draft definitions (not quite proposals): > > * text - A sequence of characters. Characters are those included in > the Unicode character set. Refer to Characters (in Extensible > Markup Language (XML) 1.1) for more information about the accepted > character range. > * Unicode - Unicode is a universal character set that defines all > the characters needed for writing the majority of living languages > in use on computers. For more information refer to the Unicode > Consortium or to Tutorial: Character sets & encodings in XHTML, > HTML and CSS produced by the W3C Internationalization Working > Group. [Additional clarification that gets a bit "success > criteria-ish": This does not mean that all documents should be > encoded in Unicode. It means that documents should only contain > characters defined by Unicode. Any encoding may be used for your > document as long as it is properly declared and is a subset of the > Unicode repertoire.] > * content - Information that forms Web sites and Web applications: > the code and markup that define the structure, presentation, and > interaction, as well as text, images, and sounds that convey > information to the end-user. based on definition in "Essential > Components of Web > Accessibility" <http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/components> > * functional - performing or able to perform an action in response > to user input. [based on Merriam Webster's Medical Dictionary entry] > * non-text content - content that is not represented by a Unicode > character or sequence of Unicode characters > o functional non-text content - content (information including > markup, code, images, etc) that is capable of performing an > action in response to user input and is not represented by a > Unicode character or sequence of Unicode characters. > >If these terms are defined in these ways (or something similar) then >non-text content includes: > > 1. "widgets" that are created by attaching an event handler to an image > 2. groups of widgets that form a Web application or a flash application. > >For example, the flickr "organize" application (see attached screen shot, >description below). If the author chooses a baseline that does not rely >on flash, he or she will need to provide a label for the flash object >(e.g., "Organize photos") as well as provide a non-flash alternative that >allows the user to browse all photos, browse by date, view sets of photos, >create a new set, view groups, and search for photos by tags (i.e., all of >the functionality available via the flash app). If the author chooses a >baseline that relies on flash, he or she will need to provide a label for >the flash object (e.g., "Organize photos") as well as ensure that all of >the internal flash objects are accessible. These include: browse tab, >search tab, timeline object, create new set button, etc. In other words, >each of the internal objects should be labeled according to guideline 1.1 >and are keyboard accessible according to guideline 2.1. [tee-hee - >recursion.] >If Guideline 1.1 Level 1 SC 1 were reworded, "For all non-text content >that is functional, text alternatives identify the non-text content in >such a way that the label may serve the same purpose as the non-text >content. If the non-text content is a collection of non-text content, >each of the internal objects (or groups of objects) are also labeled >(within reason)." "within reason" is not testable, but I use it to >clarify that if you have an SVG image that is a collection of arcs, you >don't need to label every arc, only the whole. However, if you have a >flash application you label the app as well as each widget within it. >Perhaps a better clarification is to label all functional elements within >a functional element (at least for this criterion and then deal with >"convey information" in success criterion #2). While this wording is >rough, I think this approach allows us to address some of the issues we >have with Guideline 4.2 and accessibility of web apps (versus user agents) >and gives us the appropriate "wiggle room" for authors to choose different >baselines and sets of techniques. >Thoughts? >--wendy > >Description of the attached screen shot: >A screen shot of flickr's "Organize" application in a Firefox window. >This description is only of the contents of the firefox viewport and not >of the firefox UI. > From top to bottom, left to right of the viewport: >Photos: [link] Yours, [link] Upload, [link] Organize, [link] Your >Contacts', [link] Everyone's >Flickr logo >The "organize" application has two frames each with 2 tabs across the >top. The left frame has Browse and Search tabs. Browse is active, Search >is inactive. The right frame has "Your sets" and "Your groups" >tabs. "Your sets" is active. >Within the Search frame is a button, "Load all photos." Below that is an >large area with the text, "If you'd like to load all your photos, you can >do that with the link below. Or, you can load photos from a specific date >range using the date selector widget even further below. Or, you can >search for photos by clicking the "search" tab above." followed by the >link "Load all your photos." Below that is the "date selector widget" >which is a timeline that starts with 12/20/04 and goes to 4/19/05 in >weekly increments. There are yellow bars below some of the dates - a >longer bar indicates a larger number of photos published on that day. >Below that are 2 checkboxes: [unchecked] Use date taken instead of posted >and [checked] Do the zoom thing on thumbnails. >Within the "your sets" frame is the text "1 set [link] reorder them" and a >thumbnail labeled "moc moc (6 photos)." At the bottom of the frame is "1 >set [link] reorder them" and a "create new set" button. > >-- >wendy a chisholm >world wide web consortium >web accessibility initiative >http://www.w3.org/WAI/ >/-- > > >
Received on Wednesday, 20 April 2005 20:32:34 UTC