Re: CSS 3 color module and deprecation of "system" colors

Bert Bos wrote:

> The reason we have system colors and the 'appearance' property is in 
> fact the opposite: to allow designers to style form controls 
> *differently* from the system defaults.

That assumes that I'm only interested in styling form controls, when in 
fact I'm thinking more along the lines of *any* element that can be 
assigned some form of colour.

> Accessibility doesn't play any role here. The accessibility of a site 
> doesn't depend on the style chosen by the author. The Web would be 
> pretty inaccessible if that were the case. Instead, CSS allows the 
> author to choose whatever colors he wants and it allows the user to 
> ignore them.

That is an all or nothing scenario: either the user accepts the evil 
designer's choice, or completely ignores them. However, I'd suggest that 
with something like system colours (as imperfect as they may be in CSS 
2.1's specification), you can create a third scenario where author and 
end user can meet half way.

Accessibility may not play a role in your view, and I'm not saying that 
style is a prerequisite of accessibility (as you say, otherwise the web 
would be in a sorry state from an accessibility point of view). What I 
*am* suggesting is that adequate styling that can, to a certain extent, 
take into consideration the user's existing OS settings can work towards 
*increasing* accessibility (thinking of alternate style sheets, evolving 
from the current "zoom layout" idea of offering single column 
alternatives for multi-column sites, which can still maintain a modicum 
of style rather than taking the all or nothing route).

Then again, I may be the only one who holds that particular point of 
view then...

-- 
Patrick H. Lauke
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Web Standards Project (WaSP) Accessibility Task Force
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Received on Tuesday, 6 September 2005 23:07:55 UTC