Alert: accessibility and HTML Q element (fwd)

Once upon a time Dave Raggett shaped the electrons to say...
>My concern is that requiring browsers to insert quotation
>marks around the contents of each <Q>...</Q> element will
>strongly discourage authors from using this element.since

I agree.  I would not use <Q> then.  Authors cannot afford to have a
quote NOT be delimited from the rest of the text, and therefore need to
include quotation marks in the text if older browsers are a concern.

Unless browsers have intelligence and do not add a second series of quotes
if there are already a set - and this is mandated - <Q> becomes unusable 
for those concerned with backwards compatibility.

ie:
<Q>quote</Q> - browser adds quotes
<Q>"quote"</Q> - browser recognizes internal quotes, and does not add more.
<Q>'quote'</Q> - browser recognizes internal quotes, and does not add more.

This is a technological solution to the problem.  A procedural solution 
would be that <Q> does not add quotations - ever.  And the author must add
their own.

This is similar to the problem I have with TFOOT in TABLES - the only 
widely used browsers that handles it correctly is IE4.  N4 will display
TFOOT content before TBODY, as well all older browsers.  And that means
TFOOT is not usable for anyone concerned with browsers other than IE4.

-MZ
--
Livingston Enterprises - Chair, Department of Interstitial Affairs
Phone: 800-458-9966 510-737-2100 FAX: 510-737-2110 megazone@livingston.com
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Received on Tuesday, 28 October 1997 17:28:40 UTC