Re: "untill user agents" retired?

This is quite interesting.

WE have a spec which is still in draft being used to guide our  
current development eforts.  The portion of the spec which is in  
draft in question is at least in my mind still much in questtion.  I  
see bank machines, atms of other natures, cell phones and other "user  
agents" still sorely lacking in the ability to provide feedback to  
the user in the same way that some of the older user agents had  
issues so to my mind, we're still in the until phase.  In fact, I'd  
highly encourage a graceful fall back from what is considered to be  
the current state to that which is needed to suport this new  
industry.  In other words, it's fine not to implement where not  
needed but some how, we need also to have implementation where  
necessary.  It's a conundrum I know, but the benefits are huge to a  
growing but potentially huge market.  In addition, if I'm using  
enlarged text, seeing blank space does little to enhance my orientation.

I'm not sure why untill was ever used in the first place since the  
future is ever more uncertain.

-- 
Jonnie Apple Seed
With his:
Hands-On Technolog(eye)s


On Jan 31, 2006, at 8:36 AM, Christophe Strobbe wrote:


Hi David,

At 13:07 31/01/2006, David Poehlman wrote:
<blockquote>
I've seen some talk recently that we no longer use "until user
agents".  On what basis has it been decided that this is retired if
it has and if there are any that are left, which ones?
</blockquote>

WCAG 1.0 has not been revised or republished, so strictly speaking,  
nothing has been "retired". However, some "until user agent" clauses  
are now considered satisfied.
The current mapping between WCAG 1.0 checkpoints and WCAG 2.0 success  
criteria (http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/2005/11/23-mapping.html) - which  
is not a normative document! - contains some notes on this.

For checkpoint 7.3 (Until user agents allow users to freeze moving  
content, avoid movement in pages), there is a note below the WCAG 2.0  
success criterion: "The 'until user agents' clause has been  
satisfied, so it is no longer necessary to avoid movement altogether,  
as long as authors don't do anything to interfere with the user's  
ability to pause the content."

For checkpoint 10.5 (Until user agents ... render adjacent links  
distinctly, include non-link, printable characters (surrounded by  
spaces) between adjacent links), a note below the WCAG 2.0 success  
criterion says: "this technique is no longer needed for user agents  
but may be useful for people with cognitive disabilities."

For checkpoint 1.5 (Until user agents render text equivalents for  
client-side image map links, provide redundant text links for each  
active region of a client-side image map): "this is no longer  
required because of advances in user agents."

For checkpoint 10.3 (Until user agents ... render side-by-side text  
correctly, provide a linear text alternative (... for all tables that  
lay out text in parallel, word-wrapped columns): "WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint  
10.3 is no longer required for conformance to WCAG 2.0."

As I wrote, the mapping is not normative and will be superseded when  
newer drafts of WCAG 2.0 are published.

Regards,

Christophe Strobbe


-- 
Christophe Strobbe
K.U.Leuven - Departement of Electrical Engineering - Research Group  
on Document Architectures
Kasteelpark Arenberg 10 - 3001 Leuven-Heverlee - BELGIUM
tel: +32 16 32 85 51
http://www.docarch.be/

Disclaimer: http://www.kuleuven.be/cwis/email_disclaimer.htm

Received on Tuesday, 31 January 2006 14:20:28 UTC