Re: Block level elements

Thank you for your contribution to this section.

I disagree though about removing the checkpoint.  I think we need a way for
users to navigate sequentially through each block of the document.
Especially naive users need a means to easily move through all the content
of the document.   I think this is a checkpiont for AT and its priority
should be raised to priority 1.  This complements the sequential active
element checkpoint.  If both these checkpoints are implemented the user has
a means with two keyboard commands to access all the active elements and
the contents of the document.    

Jon



At 06:27 PM 3/9/99 -0500, Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
>I took an action to exmine the definition of Block-level elements in HTML
>4, and discovered that they are defined at
>http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/global.html#h-7.5.3 as
>
> 7.5.3 Block-level and inline elements
>   
>   Certain HTML elements that may appear in BODY are said to be "block-level"
>   while others are "inline" (also known as "text level"). The distinction is
>   founded on several notions:
>   
>   Content model
>          Generally, block-level elements may contain inline elements and
>          other block-level elements. Generally, inline elements may contain
>          only data and other inline elements. Inherent in this structural
>          distinction is the idea that block elements create "larger"
>          structures than inline elements.
>        
>   Formatting
>          By default, block-level elements are formatted differently than
>          inline elements. Generally, block-level elements begin on new
lines,
>          inline elements do not. For information about white space, line
>          breaks, and block formatting, please consult the section on text.
>       
>   Directionality
>          For technical reasons involving the [UNICODE] bidirectional text
>          algorithm, block-level and inline elements differ in how they
>          inherit directionality information. For details, see the section on
>          inheritance of text direction.
>              
>   Style sheets provide the means to specify the rendering of arbitrary
>   elements, including whether an element is rendered as block or inline. In
>   some cases, such as an inline style for list elements, this may be
>   appropriate, but generally speaking, authors are discouraged from
>   overriding the conventional interpretation of HTML elements in this way.
>         
>   The alteration of the traditional presentation idioms for block level and
>   inline elements also has an impact on the bidirectional text algorithm.
See
>   the section on the effect of style sheets on bidirectionality for more
>   information.
>  
>In an appendix to the CSS2 entitled a sample style sheet for HTML 4 to
>following elements are given as block-level:
>
>ADDRESS, BLOCKQUOTE, BODY, DD, DIV, DL, DT, FIELDSET,
>FORM, FRAME, FRAMESET, H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, IFRAME,
>NOSCRIPT, NOFRAMES, OBJECT, OL, P, UL, APPLET, CENTER,
>DIR, HR, MENU, PRE, LI, TABLE, TR, THEAD, TBODY, TFOOT,
>COL, COLGROUP, TD, TH, CAPTION
>
>from http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/sample.html
>
>The context was the checkpoint "allow the user to navigate among block
>elements" (6.2.5 in the 9 march 1999 draft).
>
>My suggestion would be to remove this checkpoint since the required
>functions are already covered by other checkpoints in the same section.
>
>Charles McCN
>
>--Charles McCathieNevile            mailto:charles@w3.org
>phone: +1 617 258 0992   http://www.w3.org/People/Charles
>W3C Web Accessibility Initiative    http://www.w3.org/WAI
>MIT/LCS  -  545 Technology sq., Cambridge MA, 02139,  USA
> 
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, 10 March 1999 18:24:16 UTC