PF comments on Guidelines for Web Content Transformation Proxies 1.0

This is feedback from the Protocols and Formats Working Group on
Guidelines for Web Content Transformation Proxies 1.0, Last Call Working
Draft of 6 October 2009
http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/WD-ct-guidelines-20091006/. We are aware these
comments are late (due to process difficulties on our end) and apologize
for that, and will take our delay into account in how we address your
responses. PFWG approval to send these comments was obtained 16 December
2009 http://www.w3.org/2009/12/16-pf-minutes#item08.

One positive note: 4.1.5.3 says that if a website indicates it offers
alternative representations, the proxy server must honor that and inform
the user. So if a website provides alternative versions targeting
different disability types, the proxy server would have to offer the
user those choices.

Some possible issues:

>From the introductory text and clauses such as 4.2.7 through 4.2.9, it
is clear that this is targeted at proxies that are transcoding content
for mobile devices yet the title sounds like it's targeted at any kind
of transformation proxy. Suggest changing the title to more accurately
reflect the narrower scope.

4.2.3: If a website contains a "Cache-Control: no transform" directive,
proxies must NOT alter the content. Would this be a problem for a
proxy-based accessibility transcoding solution?

4.2.9.1 #2: The altered content should validate to an appropriate
published formal grammar and be well-formed. Validation might be a
problem for an accessibility transcoding solution. Validation is not
part of WCAG 2.0 because sometimes adding in stuff that's not in the DTD
can make something more accessible (like ARIA for example). Note that
this is a "should", not a "must".

For the PFWG,
Michael Cooper
PFWG Staff Contact
-- 

Michael Cooper
Web Accessibility Specialist
World Wide Web Consortium, Web Accessibility Initiative
E-mail cooper@w3.org <mailto:cooper@w3.org>
Information Page <http://www.w3.org/People/cooper/>