RE: automatable guidelines

This is a VERY real problem area and one that we need to address.

We just finished a preliminary guidelines compilation - it is under review 
in the guidelines subgroup.  THERE IS A LOT TO THINK ABOUT.

A priority has to be thinking about how to make the guidelines simpler and 
reduce the work of page authors without dropping necessary access 
considerations.   We have launched a project here currently called c2s2 
(cooperative cross-segment strategy  project) to look at how this might be 
done by dividing the problem across segments  (authors, user agent 
designers,  website tool developers,  web author tool developers and at 
manufacturers) to see what can be done.       We are interested in all 
input.

Otherwise I am afraid all this is going to get so complicated that people 
will start to bail or feel they have justification to ignore it.

Gregg



-----Original Message-----
From:	Al Gilman [SMTP:asgilman@access.digex.net]
Sent:	Thursday, October 30, 1997 4:19 PM
To:	w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject:	automatable guidelines

to follow up on what Charles said:
>
>   ...  Let's work on the authoring tools and making sure that the
> accessibility ISVs are using the features provided by the browsers.
>

There is not doubt that our best laid plans for accessible HTML
usage will be dust-on-the-shelf ware unless they are a natural fit
as defaults within the leading authoring tools of the sighted
majority.

You will see that philosophy being applied, for example, in the
discussion of table browsing leading up to and following the post

  w3c-wai-hc@w3.org from October to December 1997: the "balloon help" 
gambit

  http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-hc/1997OctDec/0010.html

On the other hand, dealing with the tools of the majority is not
enough.  The universal Web has to be accessible to writers as
well as readers.  For the foreseeable future that means that the
HTML language has to make sense as a medium of exchange between
people authoring in WYSWYG and people authoring in source text,
as discussed in

  Status of ACSS action item on 02 July 1977

  http://www.access.digex.net/%7Easgilman/web-access/ACSS/status1.html

This means that the usage guidelines need to work in both contexts,
too.

-- Al Gilman

Received on Friday, 31 October 1997 14:38:32 UTC