RE: NEW: Issue #1544

At 02:42 AM 8/12/2005, Sebastiano Nutarelli (IWA/HWG) wrote:
>Browsers should align to our guidelines and not viceversa (IMHO).

Browsers should conform to the technical specifications (HTML, XHTML, CSS, 
etc.) or to UAAG 1.0. We are not providing guidance to browsers, we are 
providing guidance to content developers.

On one hand people argue that we should make content work with older 
technologies because we know that assistive technologies are expensive and 
quirky and people with disabilities may not upgrade as quickly or 
often.  However, on the other hand to make content backwards compatible 
that often means using practices that are not valid because that's what 
older user agents and assistive technologies support.  Multimedia is 
something that is extremely useful for people with learning and reading 
disabilities, and if we essentially ban the embed element we're banning the 
creation of content that can increase accessibility for some audiences who 
may be using older technologies.  Granted, the multimedia itself needs to 
be accessible, but we need to find the balance between old and new and 
provide the best information possible.

--wendy 

Received on Friday, 12 August 2005 17:45:38 UTC