Edit comment LC-531 for Accessibility Guidelines Working Group

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Comment LC-531: Comment Shortname:; Commenter: Greg Gay <g.gay@utoronto.ca> on behalf of ATRC UofT; Message-id:; Section of the document concerned:

or; Refinement of the section concerned:; Status:
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Comment Type: TE
Comment (Including rationale for any proposed change):
There doesn't seem to be a place to comment on the Baseline Document, so I'll post it here:

http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/baseline/

The potential for many baselines is possible, and each baseline will have an overall level of accessibility associated with it. For example, a baseline that includes only HTML 4, is going to be more universally accessible than a baseline that includes HTML 4, Flash, Java, and Javascript. For clients or developers using the latter baseline, we would essentially tell them that if their content made full use of the Flash, Java, and Javascript accessibility features, they can comply at Level 2 (hypothetically speaking). But, for a client who creates the same site that uses the first baseline (HTML 4 only), and has gone to the trouble of creating alternatives for their Flash, Java, and Javascript content, will have created a more accessible site than the site that uses second baseline and does not have any alternative formats. What motivation would there be for the developer of the site using the first baseline, if they can just place all the technologies in the baseline, and forget about creating more accessible alternative content.

Proposed Change:

The solution to this may be associating some base accessibility value with a variety of standard baselines, baselines which remain non-normative, and evolve as technologies evolve.; Related issues: baseline_replaced
(space separated ids); WG Notes: [TEAMA] Submitted by TEAM A 5/23/06 Close with the following comment: {Partial Accept} "The path the Working Group is pursuing is close to what you propose. The Working Group does not want to specify particular baselines in the guidelines nor put "accessibility ratings" on them. But it is assuming that standard baselines will evolve and change over time as you suggest. We expect that over time, realistic baselines will be proposed for use and possibly required for use by customers or goverment agencies if they are not adopted voluntarily. The Working Group will be developing non-normative documentation on how to create baselines." @@ work on HOW TO CREATE BASE doc 5/25/06 WG Teleconf Call http://www.w3.org/2006/05/25-wai-wcag-minutes.html keep LC-531 open,<put on> hold for more comments ACTION: David, Michael, Bruce, Loretta, Cynthia to look at alternate formations for level 3 conformance due close of comments [recorded in http://www.w3.org/2006/05/25-wai-wcag-minutes.html#action03] 09 Apr 07 - Previous proposed response: The idea of Baseline has been taken out and replaced by "Accessibility-supported Content Technologies (AsCT)â€?. The guidelines and success criteria remain technology-independent, in order to allow conformance using any Web technology but that technology must be supported by user agents, including assistive technologies. So, in choosing Web technologies that will be used when creating content, authors must use technologies that will work with existing user agents, including assistive technologies, that are available to the users of their content who have disabilities. To make it easier for authors who may not be familiar with assistive technologies, established lists of accessibility-supported content technologies will be available from WAI and other sources. The Conformance section provides more information on this requirement. Discussed in the 19 April 2007 telecon: resolution to close 530 as ammended (includes Issue 531, Issue 588, Issue 646, Issue 807, Issue 889, Issue 951, Issue 997, Issue 998, Issue 1030, and Issue 1494) http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/2007/04/19-wai-wcag-minutes.html {partial accept} Response: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-comments-wcag20/2007Jun/0068.html; Resolution: The conformance section of WCAG2 has been completely rewritten. The term "baseline" has been replaced by "accessibility-supported Web technologies". The issue of what it means to be an accessibility-supported Web technology is addressed in the section " Accessibility Support of Web Technologies", at http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-WCAG20-20070517/#accessibility-support .; (Please make sure the resolution is adapted for public consumption)