- From: Jesper Tverskov <jesper.tverskov@mail.tele.dk>
- Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2004 09:28:26 +0200
- To: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
In an answer to my, "The title attribute is 99% bad", Kynn Bartlett raised a very important question: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Kynn wrote: "You know, any new proposal that starts out with "Until user agents" is just plain wrong to begin with. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ "Until user agents" was the mantra of WCAG-1, the phrase is used at least 18 times. The mantra is somehow real since it is the point of departure of web design. Almost anything in specs like HTML and CSS depends on the user agents supporting it or not, supporting it right or wrong, according to specs or not, etc. It is quite another question if accessibility guidelines should be build around such a mantra or if there are better ways to make accessibility guidelines. I agree that "Until user agents" was too dominant in WCAG-1. It gave the guidelines a too conservative and too backward looking image not healthy for winning new friends among web page authors. "Until user agents" was often interpreted too strict. It should have been more like an equation. How important is the issue, what are the alternatives for both users and web content authors, what is the audience of the website, etc. The outcome of the equation "Until user agents" is different from website to website, from web page to web page, and even from case to case. It was also confusing that "Until user agents" sometimes meant, that the issue was not or should not be a web content author issue but a user agent issue, and sometimes meant that it is an author issue just waiting for the browsers to render HTML, CSS and accessibility guidelines for user agents, etc., according to the specs. Best regards, Jesper Tverskov www.smackthemouse.com
Received on Thursday, 2 September 2004 07:28:22 UTC