Review of Digital Publishing Accessibility Note http://w3c.github.io/dpub-accessibility/

This is an individual review of the draft of Digital Publishing 
Accessibility Note, triggered by the review request to the WCAG WG but 
not vetted through the group.

I have two overall suggestions.

First, each of the sections starts with one or more suggestions, then 
goes into use comments and use cases. I would find it much easier to 
understand if the suggestions were presented *after* the comments and 
use cases, which basically build the case for the suggestion.

The second comment is more substantial. I find it quite awkward that a 
document apparently intended to be published to TR essentially says what 
other W3C specifications should do. I see suggestions aimed at ATAG, 
WCAG, and UAAG, that don't necessarily fit well within current work of 
those WGs. Publishing this to TR in this form I think sends an awkward 
message to the public about how our WGs work together.

The suggestions themselves are all good ones, I'm just concerned about 
the "You should do X" style of presentation. I think the document should 
be recast as a use cases and gap analysis, which is what a number of 
other groups are doing. The suggestions for filling the gaps can be 
included, just in more general wording like "authoring guidance is 
needed about ..." or "user agents should do ...". That comes across in a 
manner that will read better by the public, and that in turn the WCAG 
and other groups can more easily add to their requirements for future work.

It will also be useful for the DPub Accessibility Task Force and the Web 
Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group to hold a joint meeting. 
This would help to bring the groups a common understanding about needs, 
and about how we might be able to meet those needs in the context of 
current work plans.

Michael

Received on Wednesday, 24 February 2016 18:04:31 UTC