Re: UA guidelines and robots

The issue of generating accessible site maps is already addressed by
Authoring Tools. The use of metadata is already addressed to some extent by
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (although not with specific reference to
robots). I would encourage you to look into those and see if there is
something further which those groups should be covering.

Charles McCathieNevile

On Mon, 24 May 1999, Jon Gunderson wrote:

  I think this issue is probably better suited for Web Content, or Protocols
  and Format.
  http://www.w3.org/wai/gl
  http://www.w3.org/wai/pf
  Jon
  
  
  At 04:06 PM 5/24/99 +0100, you wrote:
  >
  >----- Original Message -----
  >From: Jon Gunderson <jongund@staff.uiuc.edu>
  >To: <b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk>; <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
  >Sent: Friday, May 21, 1999 9:03 PM
  >Subject: UA guidelines and robots
  >
  >
  >> There is currently no mention of WWW robots in the UA guidelines.   I am
  >> not sure exactly what the accessibility issue is related to robots and
  >user
  >> agents.  If you feel there is an issue please send it to me or the group
  >> for consideration.
  >> Thanks,
  >> Jon
  >
  >Hi Jon
  >     Robots should benefit from accessible HTML design (i.e. they don't
  >understand "click here"; often they can't follow framed sites or clever
  >Javascripted sites, etc.)  So an accessible site following WAI guidelines
  >should result in a site being indexed.
  >    However there is also the issue of whether developments which will aid
  >robot software (such as site mapping standards) will also potentially
  >provide accessibility benefits.  For example would the ability to process
  >link information independently of the HTML resource be of use?  IE5 provides
  >the capability now (using the DOM, although it could be done in other ways).
  >For example an RDF-based sitemap schema which defined relationships between
  >related resources would be of use for indexing purposes (no point in
  >indexing the same resource in HTML, Word and PDF formats more than once) and
  >might also be of use for accessibility purposes.
  >    Definitions for site mapping is not happening within W3C.  Netscape are
  >doing something for Mozilla  and various library communities are working in
  >this area.
  >    My question is whether any of the W3C WAI groups should be involved in
  >ensuring that these (third-party) sitemapping schemas are developed with the
  >needs of the disabled communities taken on-board. (Note that this may be
  >out-of-scope for WAI, as W3C are unlikely to be standardising a sitemapping
  >schema).
  >    Note that I *think* that there should be benefits (based on informal
  >discussions with people) but would find it helpful if there was some
  >discussion on this topic.
  >   Thanks
  >    Brian
  >
  >------------------------------------------------------
  >Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus
  >UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, England, BA2 7AY
  >Email:  b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk     URL:    http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
  >Homepage: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ukoln/staff/b.kelly.html
  >Phone:  01225 323943            FAX:   01225 826838
  > 
  Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., ATP
  Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology
  Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services
  University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
  1207 S. Oak Street
  Champaign, IL 61820
  
  Voice: 217-244-5870
  Fax: 217-333-0248
  E-mail: jongund@uiuc.edu
  WWW:	http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~jongund
  	http://www.als.uiuc.edu/InfoTechAccess
  

--Charles McCathieNevile            mailto:charles@w3.org
phone: +1 617 258 0992   http://www.w3.org/People/Charles
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative    http://www.w3.org/WAI
MIT/LCS  -  545 Technology sq., Cambridge MA, 02139,  USA

Received on Monday, 24 May 1999 12:51:07 UTC