Re: some reflections on @alt usage

On Thu, 21 Aug 2008, Al Gilman wrote:
> On 21 Aug 2008, at 4:37 AM, Ian Hickson wrote:
> > 
> > Indeed; I didn't mean it in any way as a slight towards you, merely a 
> > reminder that we have to base our decisions on the actual results of 
> > research rather than our opinions.
> 
> In the case of accessibility requirements, that oft-repeated 'have to' 
> is overkill.  It is a counter-productive over-reaching demand.
> 
> I understand it is your personal preference, but in terms of what HTML 
> WG expects from the WAI it is unacceptable.
> 
> People with disabilities are a sparse enough population so that you have 
> to forget everything you learned in statistics class and re-invent 
> Bayesian inference with significant weight given to the input from 
> individual consumers and particularly the trainers and rehabilitation 
> engineers that work with a range of consumers and can offer some 
> synthesis of a model of ergonomics for human-computer interaction.
> 
> The WAI has been working on this for a long time.  Listen up.

I'm sorry you feel this way.

Ben, Joshue, and others have already shown that it is quite possible to 
perform very high quality research in this area despite the smallness of 
the population without resorting to appeal to authority.

I'm only going to make edits to the spec that I can substantiate through 
research or logical arguments. Continued appeal to authority in the face 
of this will not result in the changes to the spec that you desire.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Thursday, 21 August 2008 18:31:45 UTC