Proposal for incorporating AERT into Techniques for ATAG 1.0

This proposal was created by Dick Brown, Katie Haritos-Shea, William Loughborough, and Wendy Chisholm as a result of a discussion at the AU WG F2F meetings in Bristol, England.

We propose that the Techniques for ATAG 1.0 (ATAG-TECHS) be structured like the Techniques for WCAG 1.0 in that each technology is separated into its own document. Currently, the series of techniques documents for WCAG 1.0 is:

• Techniques for WCAG 1.0 (the gateway to the other documents)
• Core Techniques for WCAG 1.0
• HTML Techniques for WCAG 1.0
• CSS Techniques for WCAG 1.0

The AERT would be the foundation for the HTML Techniques for ATAG 1.0. The current Techniques for ATAG then becomes the gateway to the technology-specific documents. Reorganization of AERT would be required, and redundancies between Techniques for ATAG and AERT would need to be resolved.

Linking from ATAG-TECHS to AERT

• 18 September 2000 Techniques for Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
• 23 August 2000 Techniques for Accessibility Evaluation and Repair Tools

In General

• For all of the WCAG 1.0 checkpoints, link to the AERT checkpoint of the same number. Move some of the information (such as screen shots) from ATAG-TECHS to AERT.

ATAG-TECHS 1.3 and 1.4

Basically say, "use AERT tools."

ATAG-TECHS Checkpoint 3.2

There is already a reference to the AERT. We think the following bullets should link to specific techniques in AERT.

• Recognize collections of uppercase letters as likely abbreviations (in languages that have case) and prompt the author for an expansion, to be provided in markup (e.g., in HTML, with abbr or acronym). AERT 4.2.1.
• Prompt the author to identify the structural role of content that has been emphasized through styling. All of AERT Guideline 3 techniques.
• Prompt the author to provide header information for tabular data. AERT 5.2.1.
• Prompt the author (and allow them to specify a default suggestion) for the language of a document. AERT 4.3.1.

ATAG-TECHS Checkpoint 4.3 and 4.4

Just as the Techniques for WCAG 1.0 has a Core Techniques document, ATAG-TECHS should also have a Core document that applies across technologies. Preserving markup not recognized by the tool (4.3) and summarizing accessibility status (4.4) could be generalized across technologies.

ATAG-TECHS Checkpoint 4.5

AERT Techniques:

• 3.1.1 Verify that elements do not need to be converted to an appropriate markup language.
• 3.3.1 Check document for use of style sheets.
• 3.5.3 Verify that header elements are not used for formatting.
• 3.6.1 Check that list elements are within a list container and well nested.
• 3.7.2 Verify that Q and BLOCKQUOTE are used properly
• 5.3.1 Verify that layout tables make sense when linearized
• 5.4.1 Check layout tables for structural markup

Fixes to AERT

• Combine 3.7.2 and 3.7.3.

$Date: 2000/10/12 15:33:30 $ Wendy Chisholm