Re: Some questions from CHI-WEB people

At 10:08 AM -0800 12/24/01, Scott Luebking wrote:
>The learning and understanding of the guidelines is still fairly steep.
>For example, what does linearization mean and how does a web page
>developer learn how something will be linearized?  How much time is
>needed to learn the difference between theoretical CSS and what the
>results actually look like for the various browsers?

It's also important to note that there are many questions related to the
current guidelines (WCAG 1.0) which _are not answered consistently by
people in the know_.  In other words, informed minds will disagree; you
may ask Charles McCathieNevile if he thinks SVG is a good solution and
under what circumstances, and you may ask Cynthia Shelly, and you may
ask Jim Ley, and you may ask me -- and you'd probably get 4 different
answers.

This isn't because we're all contrary people (well, maybe some of us
are) but rather because there are not cut-and-dried answers to many
things (e.g. most "until user agents" clauses are _met_ by at least
one browser these day) and interpretation is required to apply WCAG
1.0.

And that interpretation also requires knowing a heck of a lot about
web design and accessibility and assistive technology, and even then
those of us who _do_, we don't all arrive at the same conclusion.

Therefore I agree that the learning curve on WCAG 1.0 is quite steep
and treacherous.  It seems easy at first glance -- and we do try to
tell people it's simple -- but when you get into complexities of
user agent support, of tag trivia, and of real world limitations,
it gets _messy_ my friends.

--Kynn

-- 
Kynn Bartlett <kynn@idyllmtn.com>                 http://kynn.com
Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain            http://idyllmtn.com
Web Accessibility Expert-for-hire          http://kynn.com/resume
January Web Accessibility eCourse           http://kynn.com/+d201

Received on Monday, 24 December 2001 14:53:43 UTC