RE: [techs] Review of tests 97, 109

Quick replies:
 
* The way I see it, the test suite is agnostic to how you follow the test procedure. Yes, it is preferred to run automated evaluation to perform this and other tests, but we shouldn't say one way or the other. So I don't see an issue with the test.
 
* Good catch on the relationship of tests to guidelines. I didn't follow those relationships through myself but should have. I would say tests have to relate to the same guideline the technique does.
 
* Also a good point that Script + CSS may be perceivable when CSS disabled yet function impaired. This relates to the ongoing issue of techniques and tests for mixed technologies, and we still haven't agreed on an answer.
 
Michael

-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org]On Behalf Of Becky_Gibson@notesdev.ibm.com
Sent: February 15, 2005 1:57 PM
To: WCAG 
Subject: Re: [techs] Review of tests 97, 109



In his review of tests #97 an #109 Michael Cooper proposed: 
>[ACCEPT] Test 97 [4] Document must be readable when stylesheets are not applied.
>[ACCEPT] Test 109 [5] Document must be readable when stylesheets are not applied.
>[NEW] test for STYLE element 

First, I don't think it is practical to run test 109 manually.   It would be nearly impossible for a author to find every instance of a style attribute on the page and to remove it for testing.  Perhaps this is easier with automated testing tools. 

Also, the HTML technique associated with these tests,  CSS Fallback [1],  is associated with Guideline 2.4 Level 3 success criteria #1 while the tests are associated with Guideline 1.3 and no success criteria are identified.  While the Guideline 1.3 success criteria for color apply to these tests, I don't think that the tests belong under Guideline 1.3. 

I think the issues of stylesheets needs further discussion.  In many ways the use of CSS is tied together with JavaScript to create dynamic web applications.  If stylesheets are removed, the page may still be readable but the application may not function properly.  Consider a keyboard accessible menu that uses styles to show focus when the user arrows to a particular menu item.  If the styles are removed, the user has no indication that the item has received focus and the menu is not usable. 

References: 
[1]  <http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-HTML-TECHS/#css-fallback>  http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-HTML-TECHS/#css-fallback 

Becky Gibson
Web Accessibility Architect
                                                      
IBM Emerging Internet Technologies
5 Technology Park Drive
Westford, MA 01886
Voice: 978 399-6101; t/l 333-6101
Email:  <mailto:gibsonb@us.ibm.com> gibsonb@us.ibm.com