Proposal to delete Guideline 9 (Notification)

Hello,

Deleting Guideline 9 may sound like a radical proposal, but
I don't think it is. Here's the idea:

In the 29 September Guidelines, the Guideline reads
"Alert the user of content and viewport changes." However,
the checkpoints under Guideline 9 are not about notification.
The three Guideline 9 checkpoints are:

   9.1 Ensure that when the selection or content focus changes,
       it is in a viewport after the change.

This checkpoint could easily go alongside checkpoints 4.18 and
4.19, which are about viewports opening and focus changes.

   9.2 Allow configuration so the user is prompted to confirm any 
       form submission not caused by explicit activation of a   
       form submit control.

   9.3 Indicate the relative position of the viewport in rendered 
      content (e.g., the proportion of an audio or video clip that 
      has been played, the proportion of a Web page that has been 
      viewed, etc.). 

These checkpoints could easily go in Guideline 8 (Orientation).

Thus, I think that since none of the checkpoints in Guideline 9
are really about notification, we should delete the Guideline
and redistribute the checkpoints appropriately.

Where did the "notification" checkpoints go? In the 5 November 1999
draft (the "first" last call draft <smile>), Guideline 9 included
six checkpoints. The additional checkpoints were:

9.1 Provide information about user agent-initiated 
    content and viewport changes directly to the user
    and through APIs. [Priority 1] 

9.4 Allow the user to configure notification preferences for common
types 
    of content and viewport changes. [Priority 3] 

9.5 When loading content (e.g., document, video clip, audio clip, etc.) 
    indicate what portion of the content has loaded and whether loading 
    has stalled. [Priority 3] 

Working backwards, here's where they went:

1) Checkpoint 9.5 ("stalled" loading). At the 10 August 2000 teleconf
[3],
   the WG resolved to delete this checkpoint since it could not identify
   any requirement specific to accessibility. Notification of loading
status
   is important to everyone and the UA must present that information in
   accessible manner (covered by checkpoint 1.5).

2) Checkpoint 9.4 (configuration of notification preferences). This
   checkpoint is a configuration checkpoint for 9.1, so when 9.1 was
   deleted 9.4 was also deleted. Refer to the resolution to delete at
the
   31 August teleconference [4].

3) Checkpoint 9.1 (information about changes).  We resolved to delete
this
   checkpoint at the 20 January 2000 teleconference [5] as a result of 
   review during the first last call. We also raised the priority of the
   checkpoint requiring user control of changes (now checkpoint 3.7).
   For more background, refer to issue 142 [6].

Thanks,

 - Ian

P.S. I'm making this proposal in order to help ensure that each
     checkpoint fits under a Guideline appropriately. I would note,
     however, that if we delete Guideline 9, we also have the attractive
     result of ten Guidelines...

[1] http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/WD-UAAG10-20000929/
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WD-WAI-USERAGENT-19991105/
[3] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ua/2000JulSep/0232.html
[4] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ua/2000JulSep/0341.html
[5] http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/2000/01/wai-ua-telecon-20000120.html
[6] http://server.rehab.uiuc.edu/ua-issues/issues-linear.html#142
-- 
Ian Jacobs (jacobs@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel:                         +1 831 457-2842
Cell:                        +1 917 450-8783

Received on Wednesday, 11 October 2000 21:22:34 UTC