Comments on Why Standards Harmonization is Essential to Web Accessibility

These did not fit into the WBS.

priority: mild
location: throughout
current wording: Web accessibility
suggested revision: web accessibility
rationale: I think it is convention to use lower case for all new WAI 
publications

priority: strong
location: Executive Summary, first paragraph and throughout
current wording: governments
suggested revision: organizations and governments
rationale: the first paragraph only talks about governments while other 
parts of the document speak of "organizations and governments". This 
needs to be unified. Actually, it may be good to define "organizations" 
to include governments in the first paragraph, then use that term 
throughout rather than the slightly lengthier "organizations and 
governments"

priority: mild
location: Executive Summary, second paragraph
current wording: Accessibility of the Web is essential to enable the 
participation of people with disabilities in the Information Society
suggested revision: remove bolding
rationale: unclear why this text is bold; it seems to be a point about 
the importance of standards harmonization but after reading the 
paragraph it is more about the importance of accessibility

priority: strong
location: Executive Summary, second paragraph
current wording: Adopting or referencing W3C Web Accessibility 
Initiative (WAI) standards in regional, national, local and 
organizational policies can bring the goal of an accessible Web within 
reach, while divergent national and local versions—standards 
fragmentation—can slow potential progress
suggested revision: Adopting or referencing W3C Web Accessibility 
Initiative (WAI) standards in regional, national, local and 
organizational policies can bring the goal of an accessible Web within 
reach. Creating modified national and local versions—standards 
fragmentation—slows potential progress on the long run
rationale: First point is to disambiguate "divergent" -- many 
organizations think that their adapted versions of WCAG is a form of 
adoption rather than divergence. Second point is to try and remove the 
"can" from the second (part of the) sentence to make it stronger
further note: this sentence unnecessarily repeats the sentence "some 
governments develop multiple divergent standards, potentially slowing 
progress towards the goal of an accessible Web" in the first paragraph

priority: strong
location: Executive Summary, second paragraph
issue: is this paragraph really necessary? what is it saying that is 
important and not in other parts of the executive summary?
suggestion: remove entire paragraph

priority: medium
location: Executive Summary, third paragraph
current wording: Fragmentation of standards is an economic issue for 
government, businesses, and Web developers
suggested revision: Fragmentation of standards brings/causes economic 
disadvantages for government, businesses, and Web developers OR 
Fragmentation of standards increases economic load on government, 
businesses, and Web developers
rationale: "is an economic issue" is not clear - is it more of an 
economic issue that non-fragmentation?

priority: strong
location: Executive Summary, third paragraph (bullet item #2)
current wording: many mainstream authoring tools and evaluation tools 
will not support local standards
issue: several tool developers do support multiple standards; some claim 
that multiple standards are not an issue for them (actually it is a 
market advantage when they can claim to cover standards that other tool 
developers don't)

priority: strong
location: Executive Summary, third and fourth paragraph
issue: is it important to have more or less the same points listed twice 
(once in terms of fragmentation and once in terms of harmonization, but 
essentially still the same points)? I think this potentially reduces the 
credibility as it sound like only 2-3 points that are being repeated 
differently rather than a solid set of unique arguments
suggestion: merge into one single list with strong arguments (maybe use 
the more positive "harmonization" angle?)

priority: medium
location: Executive Summary, last paragraph
current wording: More information follows on the benefits of standards 
harmonization for Web accessibility, and how to use existing technical 
and educational resources to support national and local Web 
accessibility progress.
issue: is this necessary?
suggestion: drop paragraph

priority: medium
location: Introduction, throughout
issue: too much bolding of seemingly random points
suggestion: remove all bolding from this section

priority: mild
location: Introduction, first paragraph
current wording: United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with 
Disabilities
suggested revision: please link to the UNCRPD
rationale: for people who do not know what this is and want to learn 
more about it

priority: mild
location: Introduction, second paragraph
current wording: This vision has evolved into one of the World Wide Web 
Consortium’s (W3C) primary goals, ensuring that the benefits of the Web 
are available to all people, whatever their language, abilities, or Web 
access devices may be
suggested revision: This vision has evolved into one of the World Wide 
Web Consortium’s (W3C) primary goals of ensuring that the benefits of 
the Web are available to all people whatever their language, abilities, 
or their web access devices may be
rationale: the comma structure makes it difficult for me to read; I am 
trying to improve the flow of the sentence

priority: mild
location: Introduction, second paragraph
current wording: A core aspect of W3C's work has been the Web 
Accessibility Initiative (WAI), helping lead the Web to its full 
potential, which includes enabling people with disabilities to 
participate equally on the Web
suggested revision: A core aspect of W3C's work has been the Web 
Accessibility Initiative (WAI) which develops strategies, guidelines, 
and resources to make the Web accessible to people with disabilities
rationale: I did not understand the sentence, in particular what is 
meant by "helping lead the Web to its full potential"; also, what does 
it mean that WAI "includes enabling people with disabilities to 
participate equally on the Web" -- are you suggesting that WAI has other 
focus besides accessibility?

priority: mild
location: Introduction, third paragraph
current wording: Web accessibility also benefits others, including older 
people with changing abilities due to aging
suggested revision: Web accessibility addresses people with changing 
abilities due to ageing and also benefits many others such as people 
with low literacy, with low bandwidth, or using mobile devices
rationale: we identified through the WAI-AGE project that web 
accessibility is more than just beneficial to older people; this is the 
important point in my suggestion (the rest is an editorial suggestion)

priority: mild
location: Introduction, fourth paragraph
current wording: It addresses four key principles of Web accessibility
suggested revision: It addresses the four key principles of Web 
accessibility
rationale: sounds like it "only" address four (of potentially many) 
principles

priority: mild
location: Introduction, fourth paragraph (bulleted list)
current wording: To make Web content X, ...
suggested revision: To make Web content X - ... (or ":" instead)
rationale: comma makes the entire bullet into a sentence although it 
isn't (for the first three at least); it makes the text confusing to 
read; also consider removing the repetitive "to make web content" (maybe 
just start with X right away?)

priority: mild
location: Introduction, fifth paragraph
issue: consider using a bulleted list to make this more scanable

priority: medium
location: Fragmentation Concerns, throughout
issue: too much bolding of seemingly random points
suggestion: remove all bolding from this section

priority: medium
location: Fragmentation Concerns, title
current wording: Fragmentation Concerns with Web Accessibility Standards
suggested revision: Negative Impact of Standards Fragmentation
rationale: the title seems ambiguous and difficult to understand; more 
importantly, are these just "concerns" or more serious issues that we 
want to convey to the reader?

priority: strong
location: Fragmentation Concerns, second paragraph
current wording: Sometimes local standards combine two or more 
accessibility provisions, or omit or add provisions
suggested revision: Sometimes local standards change, combine, omit, 
add, or change the [priority] level of accessibility provisions
rationale: changing the provisions and changing their level were missing 
from the list; note that the term "priority" has been dropped for good 
reason -- please try to find another word that conveys the essence of 
the meaning

priority: mild
location: Fragmentation Concerns, second paragraph
current wording: However, changing the wording of individual provisions 
of WCAG can result in unintentionally changing the technical meaning of 
the provision
suggested revision: In particular changing the wording of individual 
provisions often results in changing the technical meaning of the 
provision and thus causing compatibility conflicts (or just incompatibility)
rationale: (1) better aligned with previous suggestion; (2) removed 
unnecessary focus on WCAG alone; (3) removed "can" and "unintentionally" 
to make the point stronger; (4) tried to explain the impact of "changing 
the technical meaning"

priority: mild
location: Fragmentation Concerns, third paragraph
issue: what about cases when accessibility requirements are not well 
understood or when local disability organizations are demanding 
divergence (often claimed to be improvements)?

priority: medium
location: Standards Harmonization, title
current wording: Why Standards Harmonization Helps Web Accessibility
suggested revision: Benefits of Standards Harmonization
rationale: does standards harmonization *help* web accessibility or is 
it essential to it (see document title)?

priority: medium
location: Standards Harmonization, throughout
issue: too much bolding of seemingly random points
suggestion: remove all bolding from this section

priority: medium
location: Standards Harmonization, first paragraph
current wording: In the harmonization process, a government adopting 
WCAG 2.0 has access to an extensive library of supporting implementation 
techniques
issue: in the harmonization process or in the implementation process? 
also, shouldn't this be one of the bullet points rather than part of 
this paragraph (maybe added to the last bullet item)?

priority: medium
location: Standards Harmonization, first paragraph
current wording: Expanded implementation techniques can be shared with 
W3C/WAI for others to use
issue: this needs further explanation, in particular of the term 
"implementation techniques"; I think this, together with the previous 
point (see previous comment) need their own bullet item or maybe even 
paragraph *after* the bulleted list

priority: mild
location: after Standards Harmonization
issue: some sort of a "conclusion" is missing -- this can be part of the 
first paragraph of the Using W3C/WAI Standards and Supporting Resources 
section; just a brief sentence or two repeating that standards 
harmonization benefits all and that it is feasible (and more effective 
on the long run)

priority: mild
location: Using W3C/WAI Standards and Supporting Resources
issue: should WAI IG be highlighted as a place to turn to, to discuss 
questions and get help?

priority: mild
location: Use implementation techniques and developer resources that 
accompany each standard
issue: the term "implementation techniques" may not be understood by all 
readers (see related comments for the "Standards Harmonization" section)

priority: medium
location: Using W3C/WAI Standards and Supporting Resources, Engage with 
stakeholders
suggestion: consider linking to "Involving Users in Web Projects" from here


-- 
Shadi Abou-Zahra - http://www.w3.org/People/shadi/
Activity Lead, W3C/WAI International Program Office
Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group (ERT WG)
Research and Development Working Group (RDWG)

Received on Tuesday, 12 July 2011 23:16:37 UTC