comments on section 4

Hi,


The following are my comments on section 4, "Ensure that the user interface
is accessible." My comments are based on the February 10th version of the
guidelines at http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/WD-WAI-USERAGENT-19990210/ My
comments are preceded by KB: and I've cut any text that I thought was ok as
is. I hope they make sense.


Kitch



Section 4.1 Ensure accessible product installation, documentation, and
configuration

4.1.1 [Priority 1] 
     Ensure that the software may be installed in a device-independent
manner for all supported input and output devices. 

KB: I think the words "for all" should be replaced with "using any" so the
checkpoint would read 

     Ensure that the software may be installed in a device-independent
manner using any supported input and output devices.


4.1.4 [Priority 2] 
     Follow operating system conventions for user interface design, user
agent configuration (including configuration profiles), product
installation and documentation, and accessibility flags and interfaces. 

KB: Should the last word, interfaces, be changed to settings? I assume that
this checkpoint means that user agent should pass through OS accessibility
settings such as color schemes and font sizes that the user has set in the
OS. I don't know if accessibility interfaces is clear.



Section  4.2 Support input and output device-independence


4.2.3 [Priority 1] 
     Ensure that the user can activate the links in a document in an input
device-independent manner. 
4.2.4 [Priority 1] 
     Ensure that the user can activate the form controls in a document in
an input device-independent manner. 


KB: Did we decide on the teleconference that these two checkpoints could be
combined into a single checkpoint by substituting "all active elements" for
"links" and "form controls" ?



Section  4.3 Support accessible keyboard input



4.3.1 [Priority 2] 
     Allow the user to configure keyboard access to user agent
functionalities. Configuration includes the ability to specify single as
well as multi-key access. 


KB: This may be a silly question, but will it be obvious to developers what
single and multi-key access means? I wonder if the checkpoint should read -
Configuration includes the ability to specify single keystroke commands as
well as commands that require keystroke combinations. 



4.3.2 [Priority 2] 
     Ensure that user can find out about all keyboard bindings. 
4.3.4 [Priority 3] 
     Display keyboard bindings in menus. 

KB: We discussed on the telecon that checkpoint 4.3.4 is covered by
checkpoint 4.3.2.



  4.4 Ensure that users can disable features that might interfere with
accessibility

KB: suggested rewording

Users must be able to turn on and off support for features that may
interfere with accessibility. User agents are only expected to provide [KB:
this] control for content that it recognizes [KB: such] as an image,
blinking text, etc. For example, an applet may cause text to blink but the
user agent may not be able to detect it since the blinking text is
generated by an applet rather than markup or style sheets.  A user agent
should recognize text that blinks because of markup or style sheets.
Details are provided in the techniques document. 




4.4.12 [Priority 1] 
     Allow the user to turn on and off support for spawned windows. 

KB: I know that spawned windows are a problem but I am not sure if it is a
priority 1 problem. What do people think? Is it important to let the user
turn off this feature or should the user agent just make sure that the user
is notified when a new window is spawned?

Received on Thursday, 18 February 1999 12:15:22 UTC