"Accessibility supported" definition

Hi,
I have received a feedback by Michele Diodati (www.diodati.org), which
appreciates the concept of "Accessibility Support" instead of
Baseline. Diodati thinks that the definition of ACCESSIBILITY
SUPPORTED TECHNOLOGY
(http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/#accessibility-support) is not very
intelligible.
Furthermore, point 2: "The Web technology must have
accessibility-supported user agents that are available to users"
begs the question, and actually the definition contains the term to
define, see the uppercase text:

2. The Web technology must have ACCESSIBILITY SUPPORTED user agents
that are available to users.
      This means that at least one of the following is true:
         1. The technology is supported natively in widely-distributed
user agents that are also ACCESSIBILITY SUPPORTED (such as HTML and CSS); OR
         2. The technology is supported in a widely-distributed plug-in
that is also ACCESSIBILITY SUPPORTED; OR
         3. The content is available in a closed environment, such as a
university or corporate network, where the user agent required by the
technology and used by the organization is also ACCESSIBILITY SUPPORTED; OR
         4. The user agent(s) that support the technology are also
ACCESSIBILITY SUPPORTED and available for download or purchase in a way
that does not disadvantage people with disabilities.


The point 2 says that the Web technology must be supported by user
agents with support for the accessibility. But the point 1 is about
assistive technologies, which are user agents themselves. So the point
2 does not create a true distinction with the point 1.

In Diodati's opinion, the definition of "accessibility supported"
which is abover in the document (when the new terms of WCAG 2.0 are
introduced) is much more clear and synthetic: "Accessibility supported
means supported by users' assistive technologies as well as the
accessibility features in browsers and other user agents".

I think that it is shareable to consider that there are two problems
therefore: the definition intelligibility, and the confusion between
technologies which support and that are supported in relation to
accessibility.

Best regards,
Roberto Ellero

Received on Tuesday, 22 May 2007 18:05:32 UTC