Re: PROPOSED RESOLUTION: Issue 294: Native support and downloadable modules

Jon Gunderson wrote:
> 
> I discussed Issue 294 related to using modules for satisfying conformance
> requirements in the CG meeting today.  Len Kasday and Al Gilman felt that
> the use of modules for conformance purposes was OK, as long as the modules
> are named in any conformance statement.  Of course they would prefer to see
> it as part of the standard installation.
>
> I suggest that we resolve this issue by adopting the proposal to allow
> developers to conform to the UA guidelines using a combination of user
> agent modules and that the specification of the combination of modules be a
> required part of the conformance statement.  The details of where the
> modules come from do not need to be a part of the requirement (i.e. CD-ROM,
> Web, Disk).  I think that there should be additional verbage to encourage
> developers to make accessibility features part of the standard installation
> of the product.

Yes, I agree:

1) Anyone can make a claim.
2) Each claim must identify product or plug-in version. Each claim
   should provide information about where to get those components.
3) User agent developers should make available user agents whose
features
   allow conformance with little or no extra effort from the user beyond
   standard installation.

To bolster point three, we could define a profile that people could
name in a conformance claim. For instance, suppose that one conformance
profile is "Level Double-A Default Installation" which means that
if you install the software following the default settings, you will
get a Double-A conforming UA. There may be other profiles that interest
people (e.g., Level-A when used with this speech synthesizer) but
I would not propose trying to standardize too many. If people are
most interested in knowing whether the UA will conform out of the box,
would we make it easier on people to provide them with a known profile?
    
> The authoring tools working group has already adopted this approach in
> their conformance statement for the authoring tools guidelines, so we would
> be consistent with they specifications for conformance.

Thanks Jon!

 - Ian
-- 
Ian Jacobs (jacobs@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel:                         +1 831 457-2842
Cell:                        +1 917 450-8783

Received on Tuesday, 15 August 2000 17:52:49 UTC