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Last modified: $Date: 2000/11/08 08:27:05 $

WAI Web Content Accessibility Techniques:
Record of Working Draft Revisions

This page is for maintaining a record of changes between each revision of the working draft for the page author techniques. If you find the list is incomplete or inaccurate please contact the editor, Wendy Chisholm.,


Version WD-WCAG10-TECHS-20000826

Core Techniques

  1. Added entry in references for WAI-UA-SUPPORT since referred to in doc but was not in refs
  2. Moved the HTML LINK example from the "providing alternative" section (5.3) to the HTML tech niques.
  3. Changed the order of the suggestions in section 5.7 (content negotiation. Edtited to clarif y that it wasn't suggested that the author do only one of the 3 choices, but that all are possible to implement. Added an intro to this section.
  4. In the validation section (5.11.3) it suggests that author try accessing their web sites wi th alternative browsing software. it only lists a few of the many that are available. I added a link to the alternative web browsing resource maintained by EO as well as added a cautionary note that says that if a site is accessible w/these tools does not imply that it is accessible with all alternative browsing to ols.

HTML Techniques

  1. Made sure that all deprecated examples end with "end example"
  2. Made sure that references to HTML 4 were to HTML 4.01
  3. Noted in section 2.1 that the example is from an english speech synthesizer.
  4. Noted in section 3.4 that auditory LaTeX tools work primarily in English.
  5. In section 6.3: corrected reference to accesskey (used to say tabindex) as well as deleted refernce to "see previous example for tabindex" since we commented out use of tabindex in the grouping links MAP example.

Version WD-WCAG10-TECHS-20000808

CSS Techniques

  1. Dividing the section on colors into 2 sections: "Color Contrast" and "Ensuring information is not in color alone"
  2. Deleted references to checkpoint 11.3 from "Using style sheet positioning and markup to transform gracefully"

HTML Techniques

  1. deleted all of the checkpoints except 13.2 from the list of checkpoints "in this section" at the beginning of the Metadata section.
  2. Deleted the link to checkpoint 13.2 in "the LINK element and navigation tools"
  3. Deleted the link to checkpoint 13.6 in "Structrual grouping"
  4. Included a link to "Grouping and bypassing links" from the bulleted list under "Structural Grouping"
  5. Divided the "Language Information" section into two sections: "Identifying changes in language" and "Indentifying the primary language."
  6. Divided the "Tables of data" section into: "Providing summary information" and "Identifyin g rows and column information" and moved some of the info to the "Linearizing tables" section .
  7. Created a subsection called "Text for images used as links" in the "Link text" section.
  8. Deleted the suggestions to use "tabindex" in the "Grouping and bypassing links" section.
  9. Divided the "Image maps" section into: "Text equivalents for client-side image maps", "Redundant text links for client-side image maps", "Client-side versus server-side image maps ", and "Server-side image maps". This required moving some content around, merging, dividing..et c.
  10. Linked to the "Grouping and bypassing links" section from the "Redundant text links for c lient-side image maps" section.
  11. Deleted the "Audio and Video produced by dynamic objects" section and incorporated it into the "Directly accessible applets" section.
  12. Moved things around in the Scripts section to create the following sections: "Graceful transformation of scripts", "Scripts that cause flickering", "Scripts that cause mo vement and blinking", "Directly accessible scripts", "Alternative presentation of scripts", " Page updates and new windows". A couple of these sections existed already, but there was a lot of merging, separating, and merging.
  13. fixed typo in example of link types
  14. fixed typos. created link to CSS techs for positioning table effects from table section

Version WD-WCAG10-TECHS-20000705

  1. Cleaned up the references sections.
  2. Updated links to WAI Technical Activity and removed WAI links from abstract
  3. Updated the copyright

CSS Techniques

  1. Divided the section called, ""Creating style sheets that transform gracefully" into two sections:
    1. Using style sheet positioning and markup to transform gracefully - includes new examples, screen shots and a link to a file with working example code.
    2. Creating movement with style sheets and scripts
  2. Dispersed section: "Guidelines for creating style sheets." these were general topics and ex amples that seemed to make the most sense incorporated into existing sections.
  3. Added new section: decrease maintenance and increase consistency - bullets from deleted "guidelines..." section.
  4. Added new section: user override of styles. this is almost copied verbatim from the Accessibility Features of CSS Note with a couple additions.
  5. Added new section: units of measure. these are bullets and examples from the deleted "guidel ines..." section.
  6. Added new section: generated content. this is mostly copied verbatim from Accessibility Features of CSS Note .
  7. Added new section: providing contextual clues in HTML lists. this is from Ian's proposal from 19 March 1999 "accessible lists" as discussed in the open issues and resolved during the 15 june 2000 telecon.
  8. Added new section: aural cascading style sheets. this is copied verbatim from Accessibility Features of CSS Note .

HTML Techniques

  1. Added example showing use of ABBR in a TH, with an explanation. To satisfy the resolution from the 15 June 2000 telecon.
  2. Use example.org for examples

Non-W3C Technologies Techniques

  1. Made links from main Techniques module to nonW3C module.

Version WD-WCAG10-TECHS-20000623

  1. Fixed broken links to variants that were broken in 15 June release.

Version WD-WCAG10-TECHS-20000615

  1. Added link to the non-w3c technologies module, still need to incorporate links from main module checkpoints to sections in non-w3c technologies. It's pretty sparse but will be filled soon with info re: javascript.
  2. Added the 3rd bullet point to section 5.7 Content Negotiation.

HTML Techniques

  1. Updated 6.2 to reflect group's consensus on use of MAP to group navigation links.
  2. Added an example to section 11.3 showing how labels could be implicitly associated with their form control.

CSS Techniques

  1. Added text to section 5 that says that if background color is specified, foreground color must be also.

Version 9 March 2000

Changes captured in an e-mail to the list, 9 March 2000.

Version WAI-WEBCONTENT-TECHS-19990505

  1. HTML 4.0 strict
  2. Revised section on Math, moved to section on *text markup*.
  3. Some edits to section on table linearization since document order not the only sensible linearization
  4. some edits to 4.5.3 on wrapped text.
  5. Fixed what I think is a bug in 4.5.4 about TFOOT backwards compat.
  6. Reordered info in 4.6
  7. Cleaned up 4.6.1
  8. Put brackets '[]' outside of link text in examples
  9. Made clear in 4.7.2 that invisible dlinks are deprecated .
  10. added longdesc for ascii chart and skip link.
  11. In 4.7.6, in server-side map example, example didn't do what technique said. So added "Text links follow" in alt text. If this is wrong, technique needs fixing.
  12. In 4.10.4, put good example first.
  13. Edits to 4.4 (lists)
  14. Moved deprecated examples to back of 4.4.1
  15. Fixes (some content deleted since in appropriate, copied, etc.)
  16. Edits to Section 3.
  17. Added some abbr's
  18. Added subsections to 3.6
  19. Cut FOG INDEX details.
  20. In 3.8, reordered examples based on what to do first.
  21. Some editing to 3.10, but it still needs work
  22. In 3.11, moved disclaimer up front. Also, Added links to vendors.
  23. Some edits to 3.12, but needs work.
  24. Moved html grouping to 4.1.4
  25. New 4.1.3 with example
  26. Changed style for that of NOTE
  27. Fixed broken links and markup
  28. reworked table section
  29. reworked audio/video section
  30. added jason's ideas to changes in language
  31. added info re: searches
  32. Email fixes
  33. Replaced email addresses with affiliations
  34. Fixed broken links
  35. Fixed some markup bugs, removed examples of active/passive voice (unnecessary)
  36. Local links to alternative formats, made status of a NOTE, replaced Hypermedia direct link with a link to [HYPERMEDIA]
  37. heavily edited math and comprehension sections
  38. Removed file suffixes (for content neg), added a little link metadata
  39. Minor tweak to avoid broken link due to section anchor in comment
  40. Removed section on XML techniques since empty
  41. s/graphics/images where appropriate for consistency (see comment by Chetz)
  42. Added more information about description links.
  43. Made our own description links more descriptive
  44. Substituted ascii chart for cow (and don't use OBJECT in example)
  45. Changed "other topics" to more specific topics
  46. Added link to WAI-UA-SUPPORT to 3.12
  47. Removed links to browser support pages since will be on WAI browser support page
  48. changed class for css examples to css-example
  49. ensured "deprecated" where appropriate
  50. Capitalization change
  51. Added section on examples (namely: warning about deprecated examples).
  52. Added statement about accessibility of site map to 3.5
  53. Added default bullet ('disc') to list-style examples and explained it.
  54. Changed alt text in some examples based on L. David Baron and Jason White comments.
  55. Added information about table column bidi in 4.5 bullet 4.
  56. Changed case from upper to lower for attribs in some examples.
  57. Added a statement about equivalent text for style sheet generated content to 5.1 (proposed to editors, chairs, but not approved yet).
  58. Minor spacing fix
  59. Split redundant-links to redundant-client-links and redundent-server-links
  60. Spell fix, remove alt-ascii-art, added explanation of links from checkpoint map to guidelines
  61. Removed imap-buttons
  62. Added anchors to a few attribs
  63. Changes for addition of linearized index tables

Version WAI-WEBCONTENT-TECHS-19990412

  1. New checkpoint map with full checkpoint text
  2. New element/attribute tables, with linearized alternatives, and have been moved from "Accessibility themes" section towards the end of the document.
  3. New section "How Techniques are Organized"
  4. New section (with old stuff) about CSS.
  5. Added new links to services
  6. "Accessibility Themes for HTML" became a more general section on "Accessibility Themes"
  7. Removed the "To implement" sections. For example, "To implement alt-text, use the "alt" attribute. In HTML 4.0, applies to: IMG, AREA, etc." This information is included in the element and attribute tables.
  8. Moved as many examples as we could from the "Accessibilty themes" section to the appropriate HTML sections (i.e., example using accesskey on forms to the forms section).
  9. Substantial content was added to and/or reorganized in the following subsections of "accessibility themes": Other topics, Validation, Browser Support, and Language information
  10. Substantial content was added to and/or reorganized in the following subsections of "HTML techniques": Links, Images and Image maps, Applets and other programmatic objects, Forms, Scripts

Version WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990324/wai-pageauth-tech

This version accompanies (but is not part of) the Proposed Recommendation. Please note that this version has lagged behind the guidelines while the guidelines were being prepared for Proposed Rec. The editors expect to update it during the PR period.

Version WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH-19990317/wai-pageauth-tech

This is a revision of the Feb 26, 1999 revision in last call. This draft is meant to indicate progress in accounting for resolved issues and editorial changes. This document still requires lots of editing and validation, which will take place most likely once the guidelines advance to proposed recommendation.

Editorial changes

There have been a lot of editorial changes (too many to list exhaustively) based on very helpful comments from many reviewers. Some more important changes include:

  1. Use of "content developer" rather than author in most places.

Document usability changes

  1. Added a "checkpoint map" (section 7) that lists all the checkpoints and where they are discussed in the techniques document (by section name and number).
  2. Removed links from techniques sections back to the guidelines since confusing. Instead, the checkpoint map contains those links. This makes reading the techiques easier.
  3. Longdescs added for images.
  4. Removed links from body of document to external sites. Instead, added a new list of services (section 6) that has all these links.

Technique changes

  1. Removed techniques and examples about brief descriptions.
  2. In "Always make the source of a frame an HTML document", some small fixes to correct example. Still needs work.
  3. In 2.4, added info about support for keyboard shortcuts varying across systems.
  4. Added text to 2.5 about link types.
  5. Added text to 2.6 from Eric Hansen.
  6. New text in 2.7 corresponding to new checkpoints.
  7. Added new pieces to 2.10 based on Eric Hansen comments, but incomplete.
  8. In 2.11, Added some information (to be completed) from Chetz on support for new elements/attributes
  9. In 3.1, metadata, added note that "title" should be used as described in the HTML 4.0 spec.
  10. In 3.1, removed part about auto-refresh with META and added cross-reference to pertinent technique.
  11. In 3.1, "Section headers", added information about proper nesting (removed from checkpoint 5.2)
  12. In "Visual information and motion" (under 3.9), removed reference to Mark Novak's example and put that reference in section 6.
  13. Fixed "alt text" bug in section "Layout, positioning, layering, and alignment" (under 3.10).

Version WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH-19990226/wai-pageauth-tech

  1. Added fallback-page to list of techniques in alt-pages. then included links to noframes and scripts-alt.
  2. Commented out checkpoint text-markup, included link from style-sheets to text-markup section
  3. Touched up discussion of alternative pages,
  4. Added navigation discussions
  5. Added layering to css list
  6. Example of grouped links and tabindex
  7. Syntax fix to EMBED example
  8. Added heading for EMBED stuff
  9. Added EMBED text and example
  10. Added rough text from Eric about writing suggestions.
  11. Added new section on automatic p age refresh with two checkpoints discussed.
  12. Added intro to section on frames and downsides of frames.
  13. Added section on alternatives to frames.
  14. Added reminder about avoiding tables for layout (to be completed).
  15. Added section on device-independent event handlers.
  16. Added vertical alignment to tables.
  17. Added event handler attributes.
  18. Added first draft of Daniels CSS guidelines.
  19. Added section on device-independent event handl ers (frist draft).
  20. Added table in index of attribs for accessibility (first draf t, still missing links to topics in techniques).

Version WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH-19990217/wai-pageauth-tech

Editorial changes:

Version WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH-19990210/wai-pageauth-tech

  1. 1. added to end of the forms section (b.12): "Backwards compatibility issues for forms. The BUTTON element does not appear and <INPUT type="button"> will appear as a text input field in HTML3.2 browsers.
  2. added to the end of tables section (b.5): "Backwards compatibility issues for tables. Rows of a TFOOT element will appear before the BODY of the document in an HTML3.2 browser.
  3. Commented out comment about HTML 4 suggesting that UA's can ignore leading or trailing spaces (in discussion about null alt-text).
  4. Updated ASCII art section to reflect 4 Feb minutes
  5. Edited the examples for use of OBJECT and alt-text so that "title" is not replacement for "alt" rather it is supplementary to providing content.
  6. Edited examples for frames and longdesc. gave more copmlicated used of frames where descriptions are needed for three frames.
  7. Added a badly worded paragraph about bypassing groups of links.
  8. Changed title to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
  9. Added the term "content developers" to prose
  10. Added statement about title change to status sections

Version WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH-19990115/wai-pageauth-tech

  1. Markup for examples has been cleaned up. One example moved to work around a Navigator bug.
  2. Index removed, replaced by the checklist.
  3. HTML examples have been validated.

Version WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH-19990104/wai-pageauth-tech

  1. All of the HTML examples have been validated (including the OPTGROUP example, taken from the HTML 4.0 spec).

Version WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH-19981207/wai-pageauth-tech

  1. Place holders have been added for the new techniques in the guidelines
  2. Several comments from the editors are scattered throughout the document proceded by "Editor:" These will disappear as the issues are resolved.
  3. The ASCII representation of the "Cups of coffee consumed by each senator" table has been replaced with an image and alt-text.
  4. section A.5 added to "Accessibility Themes for HTML" called "Comprehension"
  5. The techniques sorted by priorities appear at the end of this document rather than the guidelines.

Version wai-gl-techniques-19990908

No major changes to this version.

Version wai-gl-techniques-19990908

  1. In discussing deprecated elements (that they are marked in red with an asterisk in this document) a note was added to say, "Most presentation elements have been deprecated in HTML 4.0."
  2. STYLE was added to the list of presentational elements with a note that says, "Note 2. While the STYLE element is presentational, it may be used to enhance the presentation of structural elements. The other presentation elements are often used instead of structural elements."
  3. Two techniques pertaining to LABEL position were combined into one since the technique presented an either/or situation.
  4. Several technical errors in the examples were corrected.
  5. Although there is still ongoing discussion, the NOFRAMES example was changed so that the NOFRAME only appears in a FRAMESET not in BODY alone.
  6. A list of techniques relating to alternative text was added at the end of that section.

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