Re: Balancing the myth-busting.

On  9 Aug, Gez Lemon wrote:

>>   Testing whether markup is correct after it has been manipulated by
>>   something-or-other on the client side is way out of scope for the
>>   validator.
> 
> I disagree. For the markup validator to remain useful, I personally
> think it should do more than just confirm whether or not the markup
> conforms to a DTD. The validator creates a document tree in order to

  An accessibility testing tool should - yes. The *validator* - and we
  are talking a very specific, technical, term here - shouldn't.

  I can only agree with what David Dorward wrote on this topic:

    "... once you consider that the scripts which alter the DOM
     may take user input - and since you can't programmatically
     determine all possible user input (at least not sanely),
     you run in to an impossible-to-scale wall."

  Markup validity is an excellent tool for measuring code quality,
  despite the common argument that it does nothing for accessibility. An
  accessibility assessment tool should, subsequently, test this[*].




> an embed element into the DOM if required. If required is better than
> always, and getting Flash to work cross-platform is an important
> issue. I'd prefer a standards compliant method, but despite what it

  I'd disagree. Ensuring proper fallbacks is important cross platform;
  Flash isn't - and hacks just to achieve that elusive Flash object
  falls rather far down on the list of priorities.





> I do appreciate that I'm in the minority in believing that validity is
> important for accessibility. For accessibility not to be considered a
> bolt on, it needs to be considered at all stages of the development

  I've argued the need for valid code and how it is important for
  accessibility for the last ten years. I'm afraid people still don't
  agree with me, or you, Gez.





 [*]
  Yes, siteSifter will flag every single syntax error as just that: errors;
  but only if syntax validity is part of the baseline.

-- 
 -    Tina Holmboe                    Greytower Technologies
   tina@greytower.net                http://www.greytower.net/
   [+46] 0708 557 905

Received on Tuesday, 9 August 2005 18:48:17 UTC