Changes between 11 Nov 1998 and 02 Feb 1999 Guidelines

Table of Contents

• Resources
• Primary Changes to the Guidelines
• Mapping of old checkpoints to new
• Primary Changes to the Techniques

Resources

• User Agent Working Group Home page
• Current guidelines: 10 Feb 1999 (Working Group) draft Guidelines
• Current techniques: 10 Feb 1999 (Working Group) draft of techniques
• 12 November 1998 (Public) draft of Guidelines
• 12 November 1998 (Public) draft of Techniques
• Minutes of December face-to-face meeting in Cambridge and summary of proposed changes.
• User Agent Mailing List Archives
• Issues List
• History of changes

Primary Changes to the Guidelines

General

• Avoid vague terms and checkpoint languge
• Reorganize based on known content types: tables, forms, links.
• This version of the guidelines does not distinguish browser checkpoints from dependent user agent checkpoints.

Front matter

• Changed Title: User Agent Accessibility Guidelines
• Updated copyright statement and date
• Updated abstract
• No more guideline priorities. Removed note about future ratings.
• Added new introductory text

Section 2

New section 2 (separate from introduction) to define guidelines, checkpoints, techniques.

Section 2.2

• New conformance statement
• Add to conformance statement cases when UAs not required to satisfy a checkpoint: when they don't support a content type natively or when they don't have access to specific properties of the content (e.g., frame rate).

SECTION 3

Section 3.2

• Added a note about how the term "property" is used in this document (i.e., related to CSS usage).

Section 3.3

• Redefined point of regard to refer to content currently in viewport
• Removed instances of term where focus or selection specifically meant.
• Point of regard only affects 6.1.7 and 6.1.10
• Added voice browser to point of regard description.

SECTION 4

Section 4.1

New guideline specific to installation and documentation (combines old Guideline 3.4 and part of 3.1).

• 4.1.2 (Accessible doc formats) now pri 2.
• 4.1.4 NEW CHECKPOINT: All about operating system conventions. Based on MIT ftf, provision that if conventions not accessible, don't follow.

Section 4.2

New guideline specific to device-independence

• 4.2.1. This checkpoint now only refers to input devices.
• 4.2.2 NEW CHECKPOINT. Refers to output device-independence for messages.

Section 4.3

Was guideline 3.5, expanded

• 4.3.1 (Was 3.2.3) now pri 2

Section 4.4

• 4.4.2 NEW CHECKPOINT. Turn on/off background images. (Was 4.1.7 and moved based on MIT ftf).
• 4.4.5 Now refers to "captions".
• 4.4.6 Now refers to animated or blinking text.
• 4.4.8 Now refers to scripts and applets
• 4.4.9 and 4.4.10. Style sheet support now split into user and author support (based on MIT ftf).
• 4.4.11 (Turn on/off frames) now pri 2.
• 4.4.12 "Spawned windows" now "Spawned viewports" to not confuse with normal UA messages, etc. (Avoid general UI access checkpoints).

SECTION 5

Section 5.1

• "textual equivalent" replaced by "caption"
• Checkpoints 5.1.5 and 5.1.6 (selection and focus background and foreground) now refer to style instead. This is more general and device-independent.
• Checkpoint 5.1.7 (control of animation rate) now pri 2.
• Checkpoints related to volume now Priority 2 (5.1.13 and 5.1.15) since volume does not make accessibility impossible.
• NEW CHECKPOINTS related to start/stop/pause/rewind: 5.1.9 (for video), 5.1.12 (for audio).
• 5.1.10 NEW CHECKPOINT (caption position). Was 4.2.7, but modified.

Section 5.2

• 5.2.5 and 5.2.7 changed to pri 2

Section 5.3

New guideline just about links (Including links to long descriptions)

• 5.3.5 now priority 2

Section 5.4

New guideline just about tables. See related resolutions about tables

• Question: Is there a need to specify a "current" table or table cell, or is that just an implementation detail. There could be a number of ways of getting to a
• 5.4.1 NEW CHECKPOINT about providing access to individual cell content (was related to 4.3.2)
• 5.4.2 NEW CHECKPOINT (Pri 1) about providing access to associated header information
• 5.4.7 NEW CHECKPOINT (Pri 2) to find dimensions of a table
• 5.4.5 now priority 2
• 5.4.8 now priority 2 (was 1)

Section 5.5

New guideline just about forms

• 5.5.2 NEW CHECKPOINT (pri 1)about navigating among forms.
• 5.5.5 now priority 2
• 5.5.6 NEW CHECKPOINT (pri 2) about number of controls in a form.
• 5.5.7 NEW CHECKPOINT (pri 3) about prompting user before submitting a form

SECTION 6

Introductory text rewritten.

Section 6.1

• 6.1.4 NEW CHECKPOINT (pri 2) about tracking the selection. For symmetry with 6.1.5 (also changed to pri 2)

Section 6.3

• New intro text added

Section 7

Section 7.1

• All checkpoints refer to W3C Recommendations (rather than just "HTML", for example). This is to cover all existing Recs).

Section 7.2

• 7.2.1 Priority 1 checkpoint to implement the DOM. This is more precise language than the previous version, which read "For information that can be exchanged through an interface defined by a W3C specification, user agents should implement that specification."

Mapping of old checkpoints to new

Some checkpoints were deleted either because they were out of scope or subsumed by other checkpoints. See MIT ftf minutes.

3.1 (Now Guideline 4.2)

• 3.1.1 now 4.2.1
• 3.1.2 DELETED (out of scope)
• 3.1.3 now 4.1.1, but more specific: device-independence

3.2 (Guideline DELETED)

• 3.2.1 DELETED (covered by 4.1.4)
• 3.2.2 DELETED (out of scope/covered by 4.2.1)
• 3.2.3 now 4.3.1 (changed to pri 2)
• 3.2.4 now 4.1.5
• 3.2.5, 3.2.6, 3.2.7 now techniques. In addition, information added to techniques based on MIT ftf comments:
  • Profile switch by user login (CO suggestion)
  • Profiles defined in os manner (see 'os-conventions')

3.3 (Now guideline 4.4)

• 3.3.1 now 4.4.1
• 3.3.2 now 4.4.3
• 3.3.3 now 4.4.4
• 3.3.4 now 4.4.5
• 3.3.5 now 4.4.6
• 3.3.6 now 4.4.7
• 3.3.7 now 4.4.8
• 3.3.8 now 4.4.9 and 4.4.10
• 3.3.9 now 4.4.11 (and pri 2)

3.4

• 3.4.1 DELETED (too vague)
• 3.4.2 now 4.1.2 (refers to open formats) and pri 2
• 3.4.3 DELETED (out of scope)
• 3.4.4 now 4.1.3 (no longer refers to "online")

3.5 (Now guideline 4.3)

• 3.5.1 now 4.3.3
• 3.5.2 now 4.3.5

3.6 (Guideline DELETED)

• 3.6.1 now 4.2.3
• 3.6.2 now 4.2.4
• 3.6.3 now 4.2.5

4.1 (Guideline now 5.1)

All checkpoints in this section moved to 5.1 with the following exceptions:

• 4.1.7 now 4.4.2 (See new checkpoints and priorities in 5.1)
• 4.1.15 and 4.1.16 combined in 5.1.16 (pri 2)

4.2

• 4.2.1 and 4.2.2 combined in 5.2.1 and modified to refer to "access" rather than "rendering"
• 4.2.3 now 5.2.2
• 4.2.4 now 5.2.3
• 4.2.5 now 5.2.6
• 4.2.6 now 5.2.5 (changed to pri 2)
• 4.2.7 now 5.1.10
• 4.2.8 now 5.2.7 (changed to pri 2)
• 4.2.9 through 4.2.12 DELETED since covered by statement in guideline 5.1

4.3

• 4.3.1 DELETED (too vague, implementation issue)
• 4.3.2 DELETED (see guideline 5.4 for more info)
• 4.3.3 now 6.2.1

5.1

• 5.1.1 now 5.3.5 (Priority 2)
• 5.1.2 now 5.5.6 (Priority 2)
• 5.1.3 now 5.4.8 (Priority 2)
• 5.1.4 now 6.1.8 (Priority 2)
• 5.1.5 now 6.1.9
• 5.1.6 and 5.1.7 now 4.3.4
• 5.1.8 now 6.1.11
• 5.1.9 DELETED (subsumed by 4.2.2 and 6.1.9)
• 5.1.10 now 5.3.6
• 5.1.11 now 5.3.7

5.2 (Now Guideline 6.1)

• 5.2.1 now 6.1.1
• 5.2.2 now 6.1.2
• 5.2.3 now 6.1.3
• 5.2.4 now 6.1.4 (change in language, also pri 2)
• 5.2.6 now 6.1.10
• 5.2.7 DELETED (is it necessary to be able to identify the cell, or is this just part of other cell functionalities?)
• 5.2.8 now 4.4.13

5.3

• 5.3.1 now 6.3.2
• 5.3.2 now 6.3.3
• 5.3.3 DELETED (UI issue so moved to techniques document; covered by 4.4.12)

5.4

• 5.4.1 now 5.3.1
• 5.4.2 now 5.3.8
• 5.4.3 now 5.5.1
• 5.4.4 now 6.3.1
• 5.4.5 now 6.2.3
• 5.4.6 now 6.2.4

5.5

• 5.5.1 now 6.1.6
• 5.5.2 now 6.2.2
• 5.5.3 DELETED (subsumed by 5.4.7 (for size) and 5.2.1 (for summary). Not covered: CAPTION, so maybe needs to be restored. Is there a need to define "Current table" and "Current cell"?
• 5.5.4 now 5.4.1 (with language change)
• 5.5.5 now 5.4.3
• 5.5.6 now 5.4.4

5.6

• 5.6.1 now 5.3.2
• 5.6.2 now 5.3.3
• 5.6.3 now 5.3.4 (with language change and tabbing inserted)
• 5.6.4 now 5.5.3
• 5.6.5 now 5.5.4
• 5.6.6 now 5.3.9
• 5.6.7 now 6.2.5
• 5.6.8 now 5.4.5 and 5.4.6

6.1

• 6.1.1 now 7.1.1
• 6.1.2 now 7.1.2
• 6.1.3 now 7.1.3

6.2

• 6.2.1 DELETED (subsumed by 4.1.4)
• 6.2.2 now 7.2.1 (refers to DOM)
• 6.2.3 now 7.2.2
• 6.2.4 now 7.2.3
• 6.2.5 DELETED (subsumed by 4.1.4)

Primary Changes to the Techniques

NOTE: Still not much work done, though bits of techniques and references to emails added as notes

• Changed Title: Techniques for User Agent Accessibility Guidelines
• Updated copyright statement and date
• Updated abstract
• Updated intro with better description of guidelines vs. techniques vs. checkpoints.
• No more technique priorities.
• Removed media dependency section (now part of conformance)
• Removed native/assistive section (now part of conformance)
• Removed priorities for techniques.
• 3.3: Added comment about 'display:none' for formatting control
• 3.3: Added rough paragraph about frame techniques
• 3.3: Added rough paragraph about table techniques. Added note about using "abbr" in place of header algo.
• 3.3: Added comment using :hover for link styles
• 3.3 Added comment using :before for more link appearance.
• 3.3: Added note about EMBED
• 4.3: Added rough paragraph about navigating
• 4.3: Added note to describe tabbing navigation
• 5.2 Added rough paragraph about accessible help doc formats
• 5.3 ("User profiles"): Moved three checkpoints about user profiles to techniques document.
• 7.3: Added note from Marja about ensuring that SMIL temporal links be stoppable. Should this be a checkpoint? (related to auto-forwarding?)
• 8: Added Mark Novak's information on keyboard access features