Discussion of Checkpoint 11.1 - Provide information about the current input configuration and a question to the group

David,
I don't think at this time a continued discussion of the scope of the 
current checkpoint 10.1 "Provide information about the current input 
configuration" will lead to any consensus by the working group.  The main 
issue from my point of view of the discussion is not if the current 
checkpoint 10. 1 should exist, I think there is consensus from the 
discussions that it does, but the scope of the checkpoint.  The scope of 
the checkpoint discussions quickly get bogged down into general 
philosophical positions and specific current implementations of accesskey 
as defined or undefined in HTML.  This type of discussion in the past has 
not lent itself very well to resolution by the group.  Especially in the 
light of the ambiguities that reside in the current accesskey 
implementation specifications in HTML and WAIs own history of the 
importance of access key to users with disabilities.  I think the actual 
satisfaction of this checkpoint will be based on many implementation 
details that cannot be incorporated into the current checkpoint language.

For any particular user agent, the user agent should be responsible for 
providing information related to any sources of input information it can 
reasonable know about in its particular operating environment.  Potential 
sources of information include the input information related to the OS, the 
user agent's own functionalities and author supplied input configuration 
information in a resource that the user agent recognizes.  Therefore this 
is a very general checkpoint in which author supplied input configuration 
(accesskey in HTML) is only one potential source for the input 
configuration or not applicable at all if the user agent chooses to ignore 
author specified input information all together.  Depending on 
implementation details of a particular user agent, this checkpoint could be 
satisfied with static documentation or a more general interactive system as 
indicated by Charles 
(http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ua/1999OctDec/0178.html) 
especially when the user agent includes advanced user configuration 
capabilities we would like to see for people with disabilities.

I think people spending time developing techniques and sending them to the 
group for inclusion in the techniques document will expand the groups 
understanding of how to satisfy this checkpoint in different situations and 
user agent functionalities.  The more direct and detailed the techniques 
are, I think the more useful they are to people who are not familiar with 
the issue as we move to ask people to review the last call draft.  The more 
techniques that can be included before last call the better, since it will 
provide last call reviewers the opportunity to comment  on the usability of 
different techniques and how reasonable different techniques are to 
implement that have been proposed to satisfy this checkpoint.

I do have one question for the group related to author specified input 
information, or more specifically related to the accesskey 
discussion.  Since a user agent trying to satisfy 11.1 may make it 
difficult or impossible to determine what bindings are related to author 
specifications, does the group want to add a checkpoint to the Guidelines 
8: "Help Orient the User " at a priority 3 level to allow the user to view 
only author specified input information from a resource that the user agent 
recognizes?  Since author information is probably the most dynamic input 
information, right now, as a user moves between different WWW resources.


Jon




Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., ATP
Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology
Chair, W3C WAI User Agent Working Group
Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services
College of Applied Life Studies
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
WWW: http://www.w3.org/wai/ua

Received on Monday, 1 November 1999 12:57:04 UTC