RE: General And Specific Techniques?

SEE GV: Below 

 

 

 

Gregg

 

 -- ------------------------------ 

Gregg C Vanderheiden Ph.D. 

Professor - Ind. Engr. & BioMed Engr.

Director - Trace R & D Center 

University of Wisconsin-Madison 

The Player for my DSS sound file is at http://tinyurl.com/dho6b 

 

-----Original Message-----

From: w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org] On Behalf
Of Chris Ridpath

Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2006 10:01 AM

To: Gregg Vanderheiden; 'WAI WCAG List'

Subject: Re: General And Specific Techniques?

 

 

I'm still a bit confused so I'll try to point out what I find unclear.

 

In the 'understanding' document there are general techniques and associated
technology specific techniques. The general techniques say you're sufficient
"using *one* of the technology specific techniques below". Does this mean
"just one"? Shouldn't they all be used?

;

GV: You use whichever one(s) are appropriate.  For example.  If you have a
simple image you would use the technology specific technique for image (not
the one for applet or imagemap).  You can't use them all unless you are
using all the elements on your page.   

 

Looking through the 'understanding' document it appears that only the
general techniques are designated as sufficient. There are no technology
specific techniques that are sufficient. (Is that right?) However some of
the sufficient general techniques say to use the technology specific
techniques (Example SC 1.1.1). So it's unclear if the specific techniques
are sufficient.

 

GV: No. Whenever is says "using the technology specific technique below"
then that technique (alone or in combination) is sufficient.   Often there
is a thing you do (with a general technique describing it) and a way to
expose that information (which is technology specific).   In other cases,
what you do is independent of technology (would apply to all technologies)
so you would only have a general technique since it is the same for all the
technologies. 

 

The general and specific techniques are associated in the 'understanding' 

document and they are also associated in the 'technique's document. However
the associations are often different in the 2 documents.

 

GV:  That is sometimes because the listings serve different purposes, and
sometimes because we don't have the cross listings in the techniques docs
all complete (though the two lists serve different purposes they sometimes
have the same listings). 

 

I wonder if this would be easier to understand if the technology specific
techniques were removed from the 'understanding' document and kept only in
the 'techniques' document. Each general technique would contain a list of
the technology specific techniques.

 

GV:  Interesting thought.  For structural reasons however, it wouldn't work.
Techniques have different roles.  Some are advisory and some are sufficient.
And sufficiency is handled in HTM doc not techniques (because a technique
may have different roles for different SC).

 

Cheers,

Chris

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Gregg Vanderheiden" <gv@trace.wisc.edu>

To: "'Chris Ridpath'" <chris.ridpath@utoronto.ca>; "'WAI WCAG List'" 

<w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>

Sent: Monday, May 08, 2006 4:18 PM

Subject: RE: General And Specific Techniques?

 

 

> General technique are sometimes sufficient in themselves and sometime they

> need to be implemented USING a technology specific technique and sometime

> they just need to be used in combination with a technology specific

> technique (or another general technique).

> 

> Everything that is sufficient is numbered.   If there is one thing - then 

> it

> is sufficient by itself.   If there is more than one thing (usually

> connected by the word "USING" or "AND" then the combination is sufficient.

> 

> 

> Examples often include specific technologies, and specific topic and even

> web site names.   These are just examples and not limited to that 

> technology

> or that topic or to websites that have that name.   We would like to vary

> the technologies in our examples more but are trying to not get into

> proprietary technologies in our documents very much.   So we use or 

> overuse

> W3C technologies in examples.

> 

> Suggestions always welcome.

> 

> Gregg

>