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Last revised: $Date: 2000/11/08 08:27:05 $.
This page tracks the issues of the Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.
If there is an issue that is not on this list, or that is misrepresented or inadequately summarized, please send your comments to [email protected] list or contact the editor, Wendy Chisholm.
Issue raised by: Josh Krieger - 22 Jun 1998 and again by Gregory Rosmaita on 1 October 1999. Related issue by Cynthia Shelley - 17 August 2000.
In relation to: HTML Techniques
Some of the User Agent issues have been discussed on the User Agent mailing list. Refer to Gregory Rosmaita's post from 1 October 1999. Whereas Josh raises the issue about accesskeys within content conflicting, Gregory discusses that sometimes there is conflict between the content accesskey and the user agent shortcut key (alt+v is the example he uses). Gregory suggests:
as an interim kludge, authors could be encouraged (via the WCAG as an "until user agents support..." clause) to provide a link to a page which lists the accesskeys for the current page. Example of a page that lists accesskeys. (note: the accesskey for the link to the accesskey legend is k)
Cynthia Shelley posted a test file with DIVs, accesskeys, and tabindex on 4 May 2000. Gregory Rosmaita's results from interacting with the test file. On 17 August, Cynthia questions if accesskey only works on items with a tabindex.
Wendy Chisholm's keyboard acces test file to test accesskey on label vs the form control.
There most likely will be usability issues, but we will not be able to cover them in this initial release of the document. Therefore, this remains open to be discussed for the next version.
None at this time.
Issue raised by: Harvey Bingham - 28 April 1999
In relation to: HTML Techniques
Issue:
The writing direction for a table may be reversed, as part of I18N (Internationalization). Are there implications for table linearization?
We discussed this at the 12 June 2000 telecon and determined that we needed more information. William Lougrough took an action item to ask Daniel Dardailler how tablin handles bidirectional tables.
Issue raised by: Bill Shackleton - 10 April 1999
In relation to: HTML Techniques
Issue:
Should we discuss providing invisible/transparent images with alt-text as a solution for providing redundant text links for server-side image maps?
Issue raised by: Chris Lilley/Ian Jacobs - 5 May 1999
In relation to: HTML Techniques
Issue:
Style sheets may cause numbers or words to be generated. In the techniques document from 5 May, it says,
Text generated by style sheets is not part of the document source and will not be available to assistive technologies that access content through DOM, level 1 ([DOM1]).We need to make it clearer in the guidelines that any important content inserted by a style sheet must be available in the document source as well (rationale: device-independence, users can override styles, etc.)
Issue raised by: Al Gilman - 16 Jun 1999
In relation to: HTML Techniques
Issue:
What does it take to make a server-side image map return a list of text links? Do current user agents send 0,0 as coordinates if the return key is pressed on an image map (rather than a mouse click)?
Dick Brown: Ask UA if user agents generate a 0,0 to the server if an area on a server-side image map is not selected. We would like to know if redundant text links could be returned if a server receives 0,0 but are not sure if all browsers generate it. [From the 15 June 2000 telecon]
Based on UA's response, add to Techniques or not.
Issue raised by:Chuck Letourneau - 13 Sep 1999
In relation to: HTML Techniques
Issue
"Until user agents allow users to freeze moving content, avoid movement in pages." points to section 4.9.2 - "Visual information and motion" in the Technique document. However, there is no mention of freezing motion in section 4.9.2. We need discussion of this checkpoint.
13 June 2000 Wendy Chisholm - In the new, modularized format of the techniques document, there are techniques for checkpoint 7.3 in the main module, the HTML module and the CSS module. All of these sections need work. Also need to add Scripting info the non-W3C technologies module (incorporate lessons from MWC page). Move some of the info from HTML to non-w3c? actually, these are specific to the HTML DOM so perhaps best to have a scripting/DOM section for each technology?
In relation to: Accessibility Themes
In relation to: HTML Techniques
In the HTML Techniques it says,
Good link text should not be overly general; don't use "click here." Not only is this phrase device-dependent (it implies a pointing device) it says nothing about what is to be found if the link if followed. Instead of "click here", link text should indicate the nature of the link target, as in "more information about sea lions" or "text-only version of this page". Note that for the latter case (and other format- or language-specific documents), content developers are encouraged to use content negotiation instead, so that users who prefer text versions will have them served automatically.
Content negotiation should not be used instead of a link to a text-only page. Content negotiation should be used along with explicit links to alternative format and language versions.
In relation to: The whole series of documents (primarily Accessibility Themes and HTML Techniques)
The words "movie" and "video" are used throughout the documents. Either choose one or the other term, or define them. Especially if they are used interchangeably.
In relation to: Non-W3C Techniques
In relation to: HTML Techniques
In relation to: HTML Techniques
In HTML Techniques, need examples and more info on checkpoint 5.4
In relation to: HTML Techniques
Should add examples for keyboard shortcuts. Refer to Cynthia's message for proposed example for checkpoint 6.3.
In relation to: HTML Techniques and Accessibility Themes
Discuss Cynthia's proposals for techniques for creating automatic server transfer to automatic pages.
In relation to: HTML Techniques
Are there still commonly used User Agents that have problems with this? How do we decide when an "until user agents" clause has been met?
In relation to: CSS Techniques
In relation to: CSS Techniques
William Lougrough - 22 Sept 2000. In the Core Techniques we need to make it clear that not all users can easily use text.
Issue raised by: T.V. Raman - 15 Apr 1998
Issue resolved on: 4 Feb 1999
How should we handle ASCII art?
There is a difference between decorative and critical ASCII art (as with
for emoticons: use ABBR or SPAN with "title" (as per existing SPAN example, propose to include ABBR)
Issue raised by: Ian Jacobs - 2 Jun 1998
Issue resolved on: 4 Feb 1999
A potential option for browsers is the ability to hide D-Links. To do this a browser needs to identify the links that it should hide. There are two current choices to do this.
The group agreed that we ought to lean into the future on issues like d-link where an elegant solution has been devised but not widely supported. Therefore, we ought to highlight the use of "longdesc." Until "longdesc" is widely supported a proxy or some tool could convert "longdesc's" to d-links. Thus, Daniel will take the idea to the ER Working group. However, where information is critical for understanding TODAY, d-links are still a top priority (until a proxy and/or user agent supports longdesc).
Conclusion: we don't need to create a standardized way of marking up d-links. Instead we ought to focus on pushing someone to create a tool that will convert longdesc to d-link (for short-term and backwards compatibile solutions).
Issue raised by: Jon Gunderson - 5 Jun 1998 and Chuck Letourneau - 29 Jul 1998
Issue resolved on: 4 Feb 1999
In the issues list, it is noted that there is concern that the techniques between OBJECT, IMG, and FRAME are not consistent and therefore might be confusing for authors. While confusing, the differences stem from OBJECT being designed to alleviate issues caused by the original design of IMG, APPLET, and the non-standard EMBED. Therefore, we ought to recommend that OBJECT be used as designed: textual content ought to always be used within the content of OBJECT (whether it be a short "alternative text-type" of phrase, or a long description) and that "title" ought to be used as a name, but not required.
Issue raised by: ???
Issue resolved on: 4 Feb 1999
Section A.2 of the Techniques Document has been rewritten to handle this issue.
Issue raised by:???
Issue resolved on: 4 Feb 1999
Should we define and recommend that the following "rel" values be used:
The following "rel" values on links have been proposed. We determined we did not need any of them per the reasoning that follows each proposal.
7.1. dlink Mark a link as an image descriptor (see also the "D-Link Reference for Browser Detection" discussion) - since we determined earlier in the call that we ought to focus on "longdesc" rather than d-link and that a tool could be created to convert a "longdesc" to a d-link, we don't see this as necessary.
7.2. navbar Mark a link as part of a navbar - due to agreement on how to handle groups of links in a later issue ("Grouping and bypassing links") it was determined that this rel value was not needed.
7.3. lintable Mark a link as part of a linearized table - once again, this is not needed because of other guidelines related to tables and tools that are in development that can navigate tables.
7.4. transcript Mark a link as a transcript of a audio file - this can be handled using OBJECT by either including the text of the trascript in the body of the element or linking to from within the body. Also, SMIL can handle. therefore it is not necessary.
7.5. Are there others we want to define? Although it is a neat idea, we could not think of any that we need to define at this time.
Issue raised by: Harvey Bingham - 20 Aug 1998
Issue resolved on: 4 Feb 1999
Is more information about designing with color needed?
We determined that we do not need to include further instruction in designing color contrast since other places, particularly the Lighthouse do a fine job. Therefore, we already link to them and this is sufficient. Also, with the emphasis on style sheets and the ability of users to overwrite author settings, the emphasis on the accessibility of this issue diminishes.
Issue raised by: 1998JulSep/0187 3 Sep 1998
Issue resolved on: 4 Feb 1999
There has been quite a bit of discussion concerning the current release of HTML and suggestions for how to make it better. For example, people have been concerned with inconsistencies such as OBJECT/title vs. IMG/alt, the desire to see MAPs contain block level content, the ability to nest OPTGROUPs and replace device-dependent events with "logical" events.
Send these suggestions to PF to investigate.
Sent to Al to send to PF.
Issue raised by: 1998JulSep/0064 23 Jul 1998
Issue resolved on: 4 Feb 1999
What is the appropriate way to use d-link with frames?
We concluded that the best place for a "d-link" to appear on a frameset is within the content of NOFRAMES since the "longdesc" on FRAME was intended to describe the frames role in relation to the other frames. The NOFRAME description can act as an overview. Also, see the discussion on d-links. If "longdesc" is provided on frames, the proposed "d-link-to-longdesc" tool would take the longdescs from the frames and put them in the NOFRAMES.
Issue raised by:Nir Dagan - 03 Jul 1998
Issue resolved on: 4 Feb 1999
Although, it is not possible to duplicate all uses of frames with CSS2, most of the uses may be accomplished and the authoring guidelines should point that out.
We determined that there is at least one good use of frames that can not be accomplished using style sheet positioning: one frame is an index of documents, the other frame is where the content of selected documents appears. We agree there are problems with frames, but at this point they can't be ruled out entirely. However, we wish to discourage the use of frames in favor of style sheet positioning where applicable. This is similar to our position on tables - don't use them for layout, use positioning. Again, we wish to look to the future with our recommendations on this issue.
Issue raised by: Daniel Dardailler - 04 Sep 1998
Issue resolved on: 22 Feb 1999
Create and test new examples. If they work add to the techniques doc.
The goal was to be able to include the navigation links on a page within the conent of a NOFRAMES in the BODY of one of the defined FRAMEs. This way if a browser doesn't support frames (or they are turned off) the navigation links are loaded and then the user may open any of the pages in its own window.
However, this is not how it worked. In Opera, when frames were loaded, the contents of NOFRAMES were displayed (as anticipated) but when frames were not loaded, the contents of NOFRAMES were not loaded (only the contents of the NOFRAMES from the FRAMESET were loaded.
This is also the way it worked in Lynx. This makes sense, because I don't see that a browser would realistically walk the tree of defined documents within a frameset looking for a NOFRAMEs element.
Issue raised by: Jon Gunderson - 2 Dec 1998
Issue resolved on: 18 Feb 1999
LAYER is proprietary, so should not be used according to A.14
Issue raised by: Charles McCathieNevile - 22 Oct 1998
Issue resolved on: 20 Feb 1999
Current version of the guidelines contains:
Issue raised by: Nir Dagan - 23 Nov 1998
Issue resolved on: 18 Feb 1999
This issue is carried over from the Guidelines open issue list. See Style sheets in the guidelines
Issue raised by: Jon Gunderson - 2 Dec 1998
Issue resolved on: 18 Feb 1999
An EMBED example (nested within OBJECT) has been added to the techniques doc.
Issue raised by: Philip Newton - 7 May 1999
Issue:
If the author specifies a background color, they should also specify the foreground color (and vice versa), otherwise if the user has selected a particular foreground color that does not contrast well with the author's background color, the page will be unreadable.
Proposed Resolution
While the user should be able to adjust preferences on the user agent, it is good design. Therefore, it seems to make sense to discuss in techniques doc.
Issue raised by: Nir Dagan - 17 March 1998
I can't see why the recommendation using EMBED / NOEMBED for an applet. authors concerned with backward compatibility with browsers that do not support OBJECT should use the deprecated APPLET element, which is a part of the specs for exactly this purpose.
One may consider using EMBED for some other object, say an MPEG video. However in this case one should also supply a DTD with which people who follow the recommended technique may use to validate their documents.
13 June 2000. Wendy Chisholm. I don't find the example he is talking about. Since this is so old I assume it is from a very old version of the techniques. It doesn't appear in there now.
Issue raised by: Al Gilman - 21 April 1999
Issue:
One possibility for creating accessible versions of tables, is to use PRE. (yikes!). For an example, see The Tri-Met bus schedule.
13 June 2000. PRE is not an accessibe method to markup data tables since it does not capture structure or semantics.
Issue raised by: James Salsman - 5 April 1999
Issue:
Why don't the examples in the Forms section (such as 4.11.5) implicitly associate the form control with the LABEL by putting the form control in the LABEL content (as is demonstrated in the HTML4 spec)?
Having a label (at least in IE5) increases the surface area available to activate the form element, which is an accessibility feature for those with orthopedic disabilities. (David Clark 4 Jun 1999)
13 June 2000 Wendy Chisholm. I added the following text to the section titled, "Labeling form controls"
A label is implicitly associated with its form control either through markup or positioning on the page. The following example shows how a label and form control may be implicitly associated with markup.
Example.
<LABEL for="firstname">First name:
<INPUT type="text" id="firstname" tabindex="1">
</LABEL>
Issue raised by: Nir Dagan - 17 March 1998
I think one should use both content negotiation and include links to alternative versions. Content negotiation determines the default format served, but:
13 June 2000. Wendy Chisholm. The main techniques module, section 5.7 (Content Negotiation) was edited to read:
Issue raised by: Al Gilman - 4 Nov 1998 (also see the IG archive for Paul Adelson's 15 Jul 1998 note and the minutes from the 5 November telecon)
Issue resolved on: 4 Feb 1999
Issue reopened on: Ian Jacobs - 9 July 1999
"Navigation bars" (sets of links that appear on every page in a site) are usually the first thing someone encounters on a page. For speech users, this means taking the time to read through x number of links on every page before reaching the "meat."
Of the five proposals, a hybrid approach of a few of them is what the group on the call was happiest with. Therefore, we propose two strategies. The first should always happen, the second is supplemental.
11.1 Group related links (such as those in a navigation bar) using any appropriate element (P, FRAME, DIV, SPAN) and label the group with class="nav"
11.2 Use "tabindex=1" on a link that appears at the beginning of the "meat" of the content.
A further conclusion is that we do not want to recommend the MAP element as a way to group links since it is a non-standard use of the element.
April 2000 HTML Techniques module is updated.
Issue raised by: Ian - 19 March 1998
Proposal for describing how to make a list accessible, using CSS1, CSS2, or orienting info.
14 June 2000 Wendy Chisholm and Ian Jacobs propose that authors should not have to do this. Mark up the list correctly. It is the User Agent responsibility to allow the user to navigate through the correctly marked up list.
Issue raised by:The Editors - 24 May 1999
Issue:
How can the working group help keep the user agent support page up to date?
Leave the User Agent Support Page as is for now. If people find relevant resources, post to list for inclusion in references.[From the 15 June 2000 telecon]
Issue raised by: Bruce Bailey - 21 May 1999
Issue:
Older versions of the techniques document (such as the 19980918 draft) seem to represent the ideas better than the current version (19990505). It is not clear why the example is deprecated nor what it implies should be used instead.
/* find my proposal to ER and GL from last fall. this is a rat hole. it needs resolution. */
To provide author with information and let them decide to use "" or " " for decorational images.[From the 15 June 2000 telecon]
Issue raised by: Eric Hansen - 29 April 1999
Issue:
"Provide a phone number, fax number, e-mail, or postal address where information is available and accessible, preferably 24 hours a day." Should this count as an accessible "page"?
Providing a phone number, fax number, e-mail address, or postal address where info is available, preferably 24 hours a day does not count as an alternative accessible page. [From the 15 June 2000 telecon]
Issue raised by: Al Gilman - 24 Nov 1999
Issue
Currently we only discuss using the "abbr" attribute to shorten long heading names. What about using ABBR to expand abbreviated heading names?
Clarify in HTML Techniques that the principles of ABBR apply no matter where they are, in a table heading or not. [From the 15 June 2000 telecon]
$Date: 2000/11/08 08:27:05 $ Wendy Chisholma