RE: User Agent Types

See comments scattered below.

-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-ua-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ua-request@w3.org]On
Behalf Of Jon Gunderson
Sent: Monday, December 21, 1998 10:27 AM
To: w3c-wai-ua@w3.org
Subject: User Agent Types


I would like to propose the following types of user agent types, with the
following definitiions:

Proposed User Agent Type:
Visual Standard (VS): Rendering of document text content on displays
greater 640x480 resolution with default font sizes less than 48 point.
Examples include mass market browsers like Microsoft Internet Explorer,
Opera and Netscape navigator.

Visual Restricted (VR): Rendering of document text content on displays that
a smaller than 640x480 or with default font sizes greater than 48 point
font.  Examples include screen magnifiers like Zoomtext from AISquared and
Magic from Henter-Joyce for people with visual impairments, and portable
user agent technologies for the mass market.
**Comments here **
I don't know that Magic, Zoomtext, and the like would consider themselves
user agents in the sense that we do.  They don't know that a browser is
running on the computer, so haven't any control over what is rendered, or
how it is rendered.  These products simply modify the visual display,
without any hint of what is going on in the background.

As such, they probably aren't part of our purview.  On the other hand, a
browser that rendered in large font, or on a small screen would be.
** End of Comments **

Multi-Media (MM): Rendering of audio, video or animations from file formats
that contain sampled or compressed sound, bit mapped video or image
information.  Examples include wave, mpeg and avi files.
** Comments Here

Do you want to lump audio and video in the same category?  Some of the
issues are the same, but some are also different.  It might make sense to
break this into Visual Media and Auditory Media categories.  The concept
being the rendering of media in the designated format, rather than
converting from one medium to another.

** End of Comments

Aural (A): Rendering of document text and alternative rendering of non-text
content using text-to-speech synthesis technology.  Examples include screen
reader like Jaws from Henter-Joyce and Outspoken from Alva when used with a
mass market browser and browsers developed for the visually impiared like
pwWebSpeak, IBM Homereader and VPInfoNet.

Braille (B): Rendering of document text and alternative rendering of
non-text content using dynamic Braille display technology.  Examples
include screen readers like Jaws from Henter-Joyce and Outspoken from Alva
when used with a mass market browser.



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, 23 December 1998 10:27:47 UTC