Re: Proposed text about which UAs are expected to conform

Comments in JRG:
At 04:02 PM 4/16/00 -0400, Ian Jacobs wrote:
>Hello,
>
>As part of resolving issue 232 [1], I'd like to propose the
>following text for the section on conformance to explain which
>user agents this document is meant for. Please note that the
>abstract of the document already discusses which user agents
>these guidelines are meant to address.
>
><BLOCKQUOTE>
>Which user agents may conform
>
>This document has been designed to promote the accessibility of
>general-purpose graphical user agents. While many of the principles
>set forth in this document apply to other
>classes of user agents, including assistive technologies, many of the
>checkpoints do not. As the number of applicable
>checkpoints decreases for a piece of software, the likelihood
>increases that the guidelines are not an accurate gauge of the
>accessibility of that piece of software. Therefore, while assistive
>technologies and other specialized user agents obviously promote
>accessibility, they are not expected to conform (for instance, because
>they offer a single output mode such as speech,

JRG: I would suggest :
The primary mode of output maybe generated speech, but the technology does 
offer a minimal visual interface for sighted support and trouble 
shooting.  The speech part of the interface may comply with the guidelines, 
but the visual interface does not.

>or they do not make
>available information through APIs) because
>they are not general purpose user agents.  This document will help
>assistive technology developers understand what functionalities and
>communication an accessible general purpose user agent should provide.
></BLOCKQUOTE>
>
>  - Ian
>
>[1] http://cmos-eng.rehab.uiuc.edu/ua-issues/issues-linear.html#232
>--
>Ian Jacobs (jacobs@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
>Tel:                         +1 831 457-2842
>Cell:                        +1 917 450-8783

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, 17 April 2000 10:43:14 UTC