Re: mouse target size

Despite the fact that Kynn is accepting money to work on a more flexible
solution, what he says is simply true.

The WCAG guidelines are about having enough options so you have a fighting
chance of doing web stuff.  Not about pushing mouse use right up to the
exact crossover point where it fails to be the best choice and only then
worrying about the keyboard.

This is an area where the population of users is continuously distributed
in the appropriate human performance parameters.  The parametric guideline
that one sets to accomodate finite pointing stability just sets the
crossover point at which users will need to migrate to the keyboard.  It
doesn't eliminate the need for the keyboard-control case to be supported.

Al

At 04:39 AM 2000-07-13 -0700, Kynn Bartlett wrote:
>At 7:20 AM -0400 7/13/00, Jim Tobias wrote:
>>Hi All (and sorry for cross-posting),
>>
>>Are any of the WAI Content Guidelines aimed at establishing a minimum
>>target size and separation?  I've looked and can't find such.  If
>>there are none, it seems that the assumption is that people will
>>be using the keyboard instead of the mouse.  I'm pretty sure that
>>there are lots of people for whom mouse use is better than keyboard,
>>especially on portal-type pages with a hundred links.  Am I missing
>>something?  (BTW, the 508 NPRM is silent here as well.)
>
>I don't believe there are any currently.
>
>These kinds of concerns -- which can't be handled adequately with
>a -single- user experience -- are why Edapta is working on our
>adaptive user interfaces that morph the site to fit the user's
>needs and preferences.
>
>In a world where you have to balance not only single disabilities
>but often multiple disabilities -- as well as allowing for author
>creativity over their main design which is used by 92% or more of
>the audience -- it's nearly impossible to meet such needs within
>a single rendition, no matter how well it degrades.  Our approach
>is to alter the layout, interface components, and the very look
>of the site dynamically when necessary.  Single source -- multiple
>renditions.
>
>An approach like this makes it easy for us to add increased target
>size and greater separation for people who need -- or prefer! --
>mouse-based interfaces that are more granular.
>
>Sorry if this sounds too much like a plug -- I just feel that asking
>for guidelines on target size and separation is an undue burden for
>most people; at least, until they all have the kind of technology
>that's kept me up late tonight (it's 4:30 as I write this). :)  Fun,
>exciting stuff. :)
>
>--Kynn, shilling for edapta
>-- 
>--
>Kynn Bartlett <kynn@idyllmtn.com>
>http://www.kynn.com/
>

Received on Thursday, 13 July 2000 13:56:57 UTC