(Action) Issue 370: Proposed rewording for checkpoint 7.6 (and Note)

Hello,

At the AOL ftf meeting, Al and I got an action item for issue
370 [1] to propose new wording for checkpoint 7.6 to clarify
that we are not asking authors to mark up "important elements"
specially, and that which elements are important is part of
the format itself. Please consider the following proposal
(which I believe is editorial). Here is the relevant
excerpt from the 29 December draft [2]:

<OLD>
7.6 Allow the user to navigate efficiently to and among 
important structural elements identified by the author.
Allow forward and backward sequential navigation to important 
structural elements.
   Note: This specification intentionally does not 
   identify the set of "important elements" that must be
   navigable; refer to the Techniques document [UAAG10-TECHS] 
   for information about identifying important elements
</OLD>

For some previous discussion on identification of
"important elements", refer to this 28 August 2000 email
from Al [3]. In that email, Al expressed opposition to 
relying on element type alone as the determining factor
for establishing an element as important. The following
checkpoint is simpler, but the Note more complete. It
draws on some of the points raised by Al in his email.

<NEW>
7.6 Allow the user to navigate efficiently to and among 
important structural elements
   Note: This specification intentionally does not 
   identify which "important elements" must be
   navigable as this will vary according to markup
   language. What constitutes "efficient navigation"
   may depend on a number of factors as well, including
   the "shape" of content (e.g., serial navigation
   of long lists is not efficient) and desired granularity
   (e.g., among tables, then among the cells of a given
   table). Refer to the Techniques document [UAAG10-TECHS] 
   for information about identifying and navigating 
   important elements.
</NEW>

 - Ian

[1] http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/2000/11/minutes-20001116#issue-370
[2] http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/WD-UAAG10-20001229/
[3] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ua/2000JulSep/0312.html
-- 
Ian Jacobs (jacobs@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel:                         +1 831 457-2842
Cell:                        +1 917 450-8783

Received on Friday, 5 January 2001 22:22:41 UTC