RE: Odd guideline naming in WCAG 3 ... "Mobile"

Patrick,

I agree with your argument but, as you noted, the timing to make a change for this working  draft update is past. Also, I think it is a bit more ambiguous than it looks on first glance, as this particular placeholder also includes motion actuation and gestures as well as pointers.  

This version is just a placeholder. The purpose for this set of guidelines is to group guidance together by expertise to make it easier to create subgroups. I fully expect the subgroup that works on this particular guideline to break it apart into several guidelines for the next version. 

We are migrating GitHub repositories and picking up some to new work processes. I am adding a reference to this email to the subgroup page for this work so the feedback isn't lost.  

Kind regards,
 
Rachael


-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick H. Lauke <redux@splintered.co.uk> 
Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2023 6:28 PM
To: WCAG <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Subject: Odd guideline naming in WCAG 3 ... "Mobile"

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Hey all,

while it's probably late at this stage, I'd like to - as I mentioned quite a while ago - reiterate that "Mobile and pointer support" is really far from ideal...but I see it's still being used here https://w3c.github.io/silver/guidelines/#mobile-and-pointer-support


I've mentioned many times before (even back when the MATF was devised) that the term "Mobile" really is fairly meaningless nowadays.

What is "Mobile" these days? Does it include tablets? "Phablets" (is that horrible term still used)?

What does "supports mobile" even mean? And why is it lumped together with pointer support, which spans mouse/touch/stylus/etc which apply to all types of devices (including laptops with touchscreen, as well as smartphones with a paired bluetooth mouse).

If by "supports mobile" we mean "works well on small screens", that aspect is covered already by "Flexible views". Do we mean "things relating to orientation (portrait/landscape)"? If so, even some laptops include orientation sensors and can adapt/change when in portrait rather than landscape mode, and that should also fall under "Flexible views".
Do we mean "typically uses touchscreen"? If so, as said, touch is also an input modality found on tablets, laptops, even desktop devices (and those really large wall-mounted presentation displays), so no need to single out "Mobile" for this, and it's covered already by the "pointer support" part of the name.

I would propose rebranding/refocusing "Mobile and pointer support" to just be "Pointer support" (which also nicely complements "Keyboard support"), and leaving the other aspects above in their other respective guidelines.

Concentrate on *features*, not trying to pigeonhole things on a per-device-type basis.

There's no need these days to call out "Mobile" like it's a defined thing, as the boundaries between different device classes is now so blurred.

As an additional point, originally MATF also birthed "Label in Name", which came primarily from the voice input side. Nothing particularly "Mobile" about it (so it was already strange that it came from a TF that purported to be about "Mobile Accessibility"), and it should likely be its own guideline/category (I see this doesn't appear to be included as a guideline/grouping in the current WCAG 3 structure).

Patrick
--
Patrick H. Lauke

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Received on Friday, 21 July 2023 13:10:06 UTC