Re: Dependencies of WAI WCAG on W3C and non-W3C formats

At 2:55 PM +0100 6/23/04, Brian Kelly wrote:
>A question on the dependencies on W3C WAI WCAG guidelines on other W3C
>formats, and also non-W3C formats.  I think this is within scope for the QA
>IG group.

Some of these questions are clearly within the purview of QA, such as having
normative, auto-updating provisions such as IETF STD1 and as you point out
WCAG 1.0, Guideline 11.1.

On the other hand the separation of policy and technology concerns raised
by your allusion to "moves to require WAI WCAG compliance in legislation" is
a "technology and society" issue which needs to be addressed through a
dialog between policy and technology people.  I think that we should not regard
W3C/QA as other than technology people in that sense.

Such a dialog is sputtering along fitfully in the WAI Domain and I 
would welcome
your perspective on a) how appropriate and effective the separation of
policy and technology concerns is in WCAG 1 and especially WCAG 2; and
b) if you could provide one, a sketch for how to accomplish a more effective
separation of concerns.

Al

>This question is based on the assumption that the W3C WCAG guidelines are a
>formal standard and not a set of guidelines.  I know that the name implies
>that they are guidelines but [1] uses standards terminology.
>
>WAI WCAG guidelines state [2]:
>  Use W3C technologies when they are available and appropriate for a task and
>use the latest versions when supported. [Priority 2]
>
>As XHTML is the latest version of HTML does this mean that a HTML 4.0
>resource cannot be WAI AA compliant?
>
>Does it mean that a HTML 4 page which was WAI AA compliant became only WAI A
>compliant on 1 Aug 2002 when the XHTML 2.0 spec was approved?
>
>Can a page with a GIF image only be WAI A compliant as it doesn't use the
>W3C PNG format?
>
>If these questions are silly and the WAI WCAG guidelines are meant to
>provide guidelines which need to be interpreted using some common sense, how
>does this relate to W3C pages such as [2] and moves to require WAI WCAG
>compliance in legislation?
>
>Thanks
>
>Brian
>
>
>References
>
>1 Why Standards Harmonization is Essential to Web Accessibility,
>  <http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/standard-harmon.html>
>
>2 <http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505/#tech-latest-w3c-specs>
>
>
>---------------------------------------
>Brian Kelly
>UK Web Focus
>UKOLN
>University of Bath
>BATH
>BA2 7AY
>Email: B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
>Web: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
>Phone: 01225 383943
>FOAF: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ukoln/staff/b.kelly/foaf/bkelly-foaf.xrdf
>For info on FOAF see http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ukoln/staff/b.kelly/foaf/

Received on Wednesday, 23 June 2004 11:17:46 UTC