Full HTML Web Accessiblity in NS and IE 5.0

Hi all,

I've been talking with the guys working on Netscape's Gecko about
implementing the acessibility features of HTML 4.0 and they are aiming for
100% HTML 4.0 implementation. Has anyone started playing with Gecko to see
if they've implemented any of the below items?

To be fully Web accessible, NS 5.0 needs implementation of TITLE, LONGDESC,
ACCESSKEY, TABINDEX attributes, the MEDIA attribute of the LINK element,
the SUMMARY attribute of the TABLE element, the LABEL, ABBR, ACRONYM, Q,
INS, DEL, FIELDSET, LEGEND,  OPTGROUP, THEAD, TBODY, TFOOT, COLGROUP, and
COL elements as well as the ability to include A elements within the MAP
element of a client-side imagemap.

On the same note, Microsoft has been pretty good about how accessible their
products are but has anyone tested IEb2 to see if they've updated the
browser to have full implementation of HTML 4.0's accessibility features?
Here's what they were missing as of IE4.0:

LONGDESC attribute, ACCESSKEY attribute for the AREA and LEGEND elements,
MEDIA attribute for the LINK element, SUMMARY attribute of the TABLE
element, the ABBR, OPTGROUP elements.... and I haven't tested whether the
IE 4.0 implementation of the MAP element can have A elements within
it...but it's worth a check.  We've been told that IF they aren't
implemented, you can e-mail wasp@microsoft.com to let them know.

We finally have a chance to have full accessibility features in HTML 4.0
implemented in both of the big browsers. We should take advantage of this.

--
B.K. DeLong                  360 Huntington Ave.
Director                         Suite 140CSC-305
New England Chapter     Boston, MA 02115
World Organization        (617) 247-3753
of Webmasters

http://www.world-webmasters.org
bkdelong@naw.org

Received on Wednesday, 16 December 1998 12:12:29 UTC