Edit comment LC-1001 for Accessibility Guidelines Working Group

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Comment LC-1001: Comment Shortname:; Commenter: Judy Brewer <jbrewer@w3.org> on behalf of W3C/WAI, on behalf of the Education and Outreach Working Group; Message-id:; Section of the document concerned:

or; Refinement of the section concerned:; Status:
assigned to; Type:; Resolution status:
Response drafted Resolution implemented Reply sent to commenter; Response status:
No response from Commenter yet Commenter approved disposition Commenter objected to disposition
Commenter's response (URI):; Comment:
Part of Item:
Comment Type: substantive
Comment (including rationale for proposed change):

The definition for assistive technology is difficult to understand because it gives the restrictive before the general meaning; also, it may be too restrictive, in describing legacy assistive technologies (for instance, some screen readers now are creating their own DOM separate from the mainstream browser).

Proposed Change:

EOWG recommends eliminating part (1) of the definition. (Note: We think that this would work *because* your definition of user agent is broad enough to already cover some of the functions of some assistive technologies.)

Response: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-comments-wcag20/2007Jun/0405.html; Related issues: 732 1173
(space separated ids); WG Notes: [EDITORZ] We are intentionally defining assistive technology as something external to a host user agent so that our SC require the additional support needed by such AT. Do we intend to preclude user agents which provide native support to users with disabilities from being considered assistive technology, and just consider them user agents with good accessibility support? If so, do we need to include that explanation here? Discussed in the 24 August 2006 telecon: resolution: accept LC-732, LC-1001, LC-1173 as proposed http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/2006/08/24-wai-wcag-minutes.htm {partial accept} Note: Except for response to commenter, this is identical to LC-732 and shares common elements with 1173. DONE Change "(in the context of this document)" to "(as used in this document)" DONE Swap the order of the two items, so that "provides services" is first and "relies on services" is second. DONE Change "Additional services" to "Such services" Add Note before Example: Note: In this definition the host user agents are user agents in the general sense of the term, that is, any software that retrieves and renders Web content for users. The host user agent may provide important services to assistive technologies like retrieving Web content from program objects or parsing markup into identifiable bundles. DONE Add Note: Host user agents may also provide services directly that meet the requirements of users with disabilities.; Resolution: We have changed the order of the items in the definition to make the restriction less confusing. We feel it is important to keep the restriction that assistive technology depends on a host user agent so that the success criteria require support for external assistive technology and can't just be satisfied by mechanisms that are internal to the user agent. However, we have added a note that host user agents may provide direct support for users with disabilities.; (Please make sure the resolution is adapted for public consumption)