Re: Fwd: Re: Part II: Issues raised during Mac IE evaluation of UAAG 1.0

if the default is something I cannot use, how do I know to adjust it?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian B. Jacobs" <ij@w3.org>
To: "Jon Gunderson" <jongund@uiuc.edu>
Cc: <w3c-wai-ua@w3.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2002 4:15 AM
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Part II: Issues raised during Mac IE evaluation of
UAAG 1.0


Jon Gunderson wrote:

>
>> Date: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 17:34:35 -0600
>> To: "Ian B. Jacobs" <ij@w3.org>
>> From: Jon Gunderson <jongund@uiuc.edu>
>> Subject: Re: Part II: Issues raised during Mac IE evaluation of UAAG
1.0
>>
>> By requiring something other than color it will make the information
>> much more salient to the user.  If I can't see colors or distinguish
>> them easily, I need something else to determine that this element is
>> different from the elements that are around it.


But note that the requirement is about the *default* highlight
and not the highlight mechanism in general.

We don't have a requirement that says "Provide at least one
non-color highlight style." It's framed in terms of the default
style. Is there a (P1) reason why the default style can't be color
if there's an alternative mechanism?

In checkpoint 10.3, we require that 5 values differ in presentation.
Suppose that someone could only use black and white.
That would mean that,f or example, the user agent could use black
text on white background for ordinary text, reverse video for
selection, and would need three other mechanisms for the other
three values (focus, fee links, recently visited links). This could
be done with lines (e.g., underline, boxes, and overlines). This
is really the extreme case where a visual user is only capable of
using black and white. Does this happen in practice? As soon as
the user can use a few more color combinations, then the requirement
for underlines and boxes goes away as a P1 requirement.

I can't find any argument to justify the requirement as is since
it's tied to the *default* presentation. I think that the 5 values
can be rendered using color by default, but as long as the user can
override the colors, the user should be ok (at a P1 level). It's
possible that there should be a requirement for rendering styles
not based on foreground and background colors for those people who
can only use black, white, and a few more colors. If this is not
a real requirement, then I have a hard time justifying a P1
requirement for styles other than colors.

I note that browsers already provide non-color highlight mechanisms
for some of the values (e.g., links are underlined). But UA
and operating environment conventions do not force non-color
highlight mechanisms by default for all five values. And I don't
think we should require that they do.

  _ Ian


--
Ian Jacobs (ij@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel:                     +1 718 260-9447

Received on Wednesday, 3 April 2002 11:06:05 UTC