Re: Text email newsletter standard

The problem with an html standard for textual information such as that 
conveyed in newsletters adopting these standards even if they are on the web 
is that Of I want to send the newsletter to someone or I want the standard 
preserved as well as adding html, My options shrink for viewable 
applications.  As it currently stands, the text standard is fully backward 
compatible and harmonic with the intent of its delivery and content. 
Whether I agree with the standard or not, I acknowledge that we need a text 
standard.

Johnnie Apple Seed

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phill Jenkins" <pjenkins@us.ibm.com>
To: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 11:21 AM
Subject: Re: Text email newsletter standard


This Text E-Mail Newsletter (TEN) [note 1]so called standard seems to be
used as a format for web pages as well.  And more interestingly it is in
direct conflict with the latest draft of WCAG 2.0's [note 2] requirement
1.3 to not allow flat unstructured text.  See
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#content-structure-separation Level 1 Success
Criteria, which basically says that there can be no flat text, but that,
for example, paragraphs, lists, and headings must be identified
programmatically in the mark-up.

Personally, I believe that flat text is sufficient and that the level 1
requirement in the WCAG 2.0 draft is too high of a priority.  Surely flat
unstructured text has been used successfully by users with disabilities
for a long time.  Even the WAI e-mail list archives would not comply and
they are perfectly usable as they are.  However, I agree that structured
text with HTML markup for lists, headings, paragraphs, etc. are better
than a new plain text standard such as TEN.  In other words, newsletters
could (level 2 requirement) also be available in HTML format instead of
just flat text content - no need for new sudo mark-up conventions such as
TEN.

Regards,
Phill Jenkins

note 1 http://www.headstar.com/ten/
note 2 latest WCAG 2.0 draft  http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/

Received on Wednesday, 8 December 2004 16:37:06 UTC