- From: Lois Wakeman <lois@lois.co.uk>
- Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2004 17:21:14 +0100
- To: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Thanks for the clarification Ian. > I am mainly talking about proper headings, including those marked > as h1/h2 etc. I am not sure about alt text, but I suspect that the > same consideration applies for having sensible pauses. In that case, I guess usability and accessibility are rather at odds for an audience using the browser without AT: one of the rules of usability is not to do things differently from what people are used to. If I saw a web page with full stops after all the headings, I'd be distracted by that fact rather than reading the content, I think - since it is contrary to my expectations. Of course, if you could engineer a shift in everyone's house style, that objection would go away. > But doesn't most accessibility require a shift in > practice? - Structured headings and mark-up instead of font > changes; meaningful links; using alt text; etc etc. Agreed: but your examples are mostly specific to HTML and an enhancement to the content for everyone, whereas general writing conventions (including punctuation) apply equally to paper, PDF or whatever. And whether it is a good thing or not, I would guess that most people expect the written word to use roughly the same conventions, whatever form it takes. (Exceptions include chat rooms and SMS: but I am talking 'serious' permanent content here.) Lois Wakeman -------------------------------- http://lois.co.uk http://siteusability.com http://communicationarts.co.uk
Received on Monday, 21 June 2004 12:23:01 UTC