Re: [Editorial] Proposed clarification to checkpoint 12.5 (documentation of changes that affect accessibility)

Denis Anson wrote:
> 
> Ian,
> 
> The only weakness of this checkpoint that I see is the law of unintended
> consequences:  You don't always know how a change affects accessibility.
> Certainly, we want to know how you have improved accessibility, but would
> any developer deliberately decrease access?  Changes in that direction would
> be inadvertant, and probably not known.
> 
> I'm pretty sure, for example, that when IE 4.0 was released, it wasn't
> deliberate that it broke access.
> 
> So, if a developer did something that changed access accidentally, would the
> developer lose conformance when a user contested this?

I don't think so. I would apply the concept of "recognize" to
humans here: if you know that if affects accessibility, you document
it. If you don't, then you don't. 

Of course, people can lie, but I don't think any document we write
can protect us against that.

I agree that this checkpoint is hard to verify (as many others
are in our document) and impossible to automate.

 _ Ian

 
> Denis
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: w3c-wai-ua-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ua-request@w3.org]On
> Behalf Of Ian Jacobs
> Sent: Friday, April 13, 2001 8:21 PM
> To: w3c-wai-ua@w3.org
> Subject: [Editorial] Proposed clarification to checkpoint 12.5
> (documentation of changes that affect accessibility)
> 
> Hello,
> 
> In the 9 April draft [1], checkpoint 12.5 reads:
> 
>    "12.5 In each software release, document all changes that
>          affect accessibility."
> 
> I think this checkpoint is could be interpreted as making
> a requirement that spans more than one release of a user
> agent. This would make conformance for a specific release
> of a user agent impossible.
> 
> Instead, I propose the following language, which I consider
> an editorial clarification:
> 
>    "12.5 Document all changes from the previous version
>          of the user agent that affect accessibility."
> 
> Comments:
> 
>  - The term "release" has been replaced by "version", which
>    is the term used in the section on conformance.
> 
>  _ Ian
> 
> [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-UAAG10-20010409/
> --
> Ian Jacobs (jacobs@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
> Tel:                         +1 831 457-2842
> Cell:                        +1 917 450-8783

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

Received on Saturday, 14 April 2001 10:12:48 UTC