Priorities and Implementation dicusion

There has been considerable discussion related to priorities and
implementation
of accessibility techniques in the UA guidelines.  My consensus of the telecon
today (11/4) is that there is a need for implementation guidelines for each
technique.  The following are suggested definitions:

A. Implementation recommendation
[Must implement]
This technique must be implemented directly by the user agent and also must be
compatible with assistive technology.  

[Should implement] 
This technique should be implemented directly by the user agent and must be
made available through compatibility with assistive technology.  If assistive
technology does not exist or cannot be used for access to the user agent (i.e
Kiosk), then the user agent must directly implement the technique.

Factors related to implementation
1. Technical difficulty of implementation
2. How the feature may impact other users
3. Availability of other solutions in current practice
4. Importance of feature for accessibility

B. Priority
Priorites indicate the importance of the technique for accessibility and does
not consider implmentation issues.  Although I think there will and should
be a
high correlation between Priority 1s and Direct Implementation.  
[Priority 1] 
This guideline is fundamental to user accessibility. 
[Priority 2] 
This guideline is important for user accessibility. 
[Priority 3] 
This guideline promotes user accessibility. 

I am posting this to the list for discussion and feedback.  
Do you disagree with including implementation information in the UA
guidelines?
Do these definitions reflect your view?
Can you accept these definitions?
Can you suggest better definitions?

The definition of implementation information is fundamental to the document
structure and discussion of the group.  Look forward to your comments,
especially for participants who are not part of the telecons and face-to-face
meetings.
Jon

Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., ATP
Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology
Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services
University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
1207 S. Oak Street
Champaign, IL 61820

Voice: 217-244-5870
Fax: 217-333-0248
E-mail: jongund@uiuc.edu
WWW:	http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~jongund
	http://www.als.uiuc.edu/InfoTechAccess

Received on Wednesday, 4 November 1998 17:20:33 UTC