RE: Selecting Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools

[- commenter]

I completely agree with his definition of "can not" and "cannot". I agree with his suggested change.

Brent

Brent A. Bakken  |  Director, Accessibility Strategy & Education  |  (512) 202-1087  |  brent.bakken@pearson.com  |  Pearson - Always Learning



-----Original Message-----
From: C. M. Sperberg-McQueen <cmsmcq@blackmesatech.com> 
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2020 10:25 AM
To: wai-eo-editors@w3.org
Cc: C. M. Sperberg-McQueen <cmsmcq@blackmesatech.com>
Subject: Selecting Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools

The heading of the first sub-section on the page reads

   What Evaluation Tools Can Do and Can Not Do

When I was in first grade, we were taught that in order to convey inability to do something one should write “cannot”
as a single word.  This helps avoid the misreading that takes “X can not do Y” as meaning “X has the capability to refrain from Y” (which implicitly suggests that if X chose, X could in fact do Y).

In the current document, I take the meaning of both occurrences of “can not” to be “is not able to” or “is not in a position to”.  So I suggest changing “can not” to “cannot” in all three places where it appears in the document (two occurrences of the section heading and one in the prose).

Of course, I realize that other people’s first grade teachers may
have taught them different rules about “can” and “not”.   I 
would cite another authority more generally recognized, but the University of Chicago Manual of Style does not address the question and I am away from my desk so I cannot now conveniently consult other resources that carry any weight.  For what it is worth, a couple of not quite random bloggers and commenters on Stack Exchange agree with me ([2], [3]), but that is currently the best I can do by way of marshalling support for this suggestion.

best regards,

Michael Sperberg-McQueen


[1] https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.w3.org_WAI_test-2Devaluate_tools_selecting_&d=DwIFaQ&c=0YLnzTkWOdJlub_y7qAx8Q&r=v-L6X-ScaY5UKb-F-_zcuXdbPw2UYK_gaTG8R5d9h7U&m=iCxA6LxzbI4w89UnAUD8lIZF6wXGGx2mwrLK7KH2H60&s=UKMaUcGqzF4JRnZU-5Fxo8EXz_PEYdFJgqjooPi63cw&e=

[2] https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.grammarly.com_blog_cannot-2Dor-2Dcan-2Dnot_&d=DwIFaQ&c=0YLnzTkWOdJlub_y7qAx8Q&r=v-L6X-ScaY5UKb-F-_zcuXdbPw2UYK_gaTG8R5d9h7U&m=iCxA6LxzbI4w89UnAUD8lIZF6wXGGx2mwrLK7KH2H60&s=I6XPWQCMmFK5LNvL_EwmqiFGIb45bhDicjVAgJi1sqM&e=

[3] https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__english.stackexchange.com_questions_132600_can-2Dnot-2Dvs-2Dcannot&d=DwIFaQ&c=0YLnzTkWOdJlub_y7qAx8Q&r=v-L6X-ScaY5UKb-F-_zcuXdbPw2UYK_gaTG8R5d9h7U&m=iCxA6LxzbI4w89UnAUD8lIZF6wXGGx2mwrLK7KH2H60&s=UCVvhPpXaGbaCSLO_hF_BWu0WiVstLlmuzh6UQIVINs&e= 


********************************************
C. M. Sperberg-McQueen
Black Mesa Technologies LLC
cmsmcq@blackmesatech.com
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.blackmesatech.com&d=DwIFaQ&c=0YLnzTkWOdJlub_y7qAx8Q&r=v-L6X-ScaY5UKb-F-_zcuXdbPw2UYK_gaTG8R5d9h7U&m=iCxA6LxzbI4w89UnAUD8lIZF6wXGGx2mwrLK7KH2H60&s=_Wdccpx4fB62hlviOwYJFVb3u9z5wSjW-B4yA6xn7Jg&e=

********************************************

Received on Wednesday, 25 March 2020 15:30:43 UTC