Re: Issue 429: Please reconsider resolution to add techniques about sharing user preferences

Response in JRG:
At 06:20 PM 1/10/2001 -0500, Ian Jacobs wrote:
>Hello,
>
>The minutes (by me) of the 4 Jan 2001 teleconf [1] indicate that
>for issue 429 [2] we resolved to add techniques to Guideline 5
>about communicating user preferences/settings to plug-ins.
>This may be a useful thing to do. But:
>
>1) I'm not sure that it's a high-priority accessibility requirement.
>    It may be convenient to inherit settings, but if the plug-in
>    is accessible and configurable, then the user should be able to
>    use it anyway.

JRG: I don't think the group has enough knowledge about this potential 
problem to make it part of the recommendation.  There are a number of 
implementation issues that relate to how a plug-in gets information from 
the OS and the browser.  At this time it seems that this is something that 
is implied by the current guidelines for conformance groupings that include 
plug-ins, but we do not have a specific requirement.  If this is something 
important we can add it to the next version of the guidelines.

>2) I'm not sure what real-world scenarios are addressed by this
>    requirement.

JRG: I don't know enough about the problem either.

>3) I don't know what standard APIs or protocols exist for
>    communicating user agent settings. I don't know to what extent
>    P3P (for privacy preferences) or CC/PP are useful here. In any
>    case, I would not want to include a requirement to implement
>    either of these. If they are implemented, then checkpoint 6.2
>    requires conformance to them at a P2 level.

JRG: Currently this would seem to me more of a platform specific API request.

>4) We haven't discussed the privacy or security issues implied
>    by the communication of user preferences.

JRG: Correct and I don't think we currently have enough people in our 
working group with expertise in these areas.

>Thus, it is my opinion that, before we have more information or
>spend more time studying this new requirement, we should
>not include advice or vague techniques about communication of
>user preferences.

JRG: I agree let's just drop this one for now.  We can put it on our issue 
list for the next version of the document.

Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., ATP
Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology
Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services
MC-574
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 Wednesday, 10 January 2001 20:55:38 UTC