Edit comment LC-946 for Accessibility Guidelines Working Group

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Comment LC-946: Comment Shortname:; Commenter: M.F. Laughton <adio@crc.ca> on behalf of Government of Canada; 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:
The document lacks any reference to dealing with "unusual user interface features or behaviours" that are likely to confuse the first-time/novice user. We feel that such should be described to the user before they are encountered.

Proposed Change:

Add a level 3 (at least) success criterion - perhaps to Guideline 3.1 - requiring that "Explain/describe/warn about the existence of unusual user interface features or behaviours before they are encountered.; Related issues: (space separated ids); WG Notes: [TEAMB] SC? advisory technique? [SM] Is this covered under Guideline 2.4 "Provide mechanisms to help users find content, orient themselves within it, and navigate through it" and also Guideline 3.2 "Make the placement and functionality of content predictable." The condition "unusual" is a subjective and therefore immeasurable state. It would be difficult to define what "unusual" is. This type of scenario is described in the Guidelines as "unexpected". LGR (Aug 3): "first time/novice user" makes this sound like a usability issue rather than an accessibility issue. However, there may be implications for some cognitive disabilities. Adding cognitive sort term and putting on hold. Discussed in the 01 March 2007 telecon: Accepted as amended. http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/2007/03/01-wai-wcag-minutes.html {partial Accept} DONE Add a sentence to the intent section of 2.4 (end of first paragraph) that says: "unusual user interface features or behaviours may confuse people with cognitive disabilities." Internal WD updated 05 March 2007 Clayton Lewis will write an advisory technique decided on the cognitive teleconferece call Mar 13, 2007; Resolution: We've tried to address this type of scenario in the Guidelines as "predictable" behaviour and it is covered under Guideline 3.2 "Make the placement and functionality of content predictable." We've tried to further supplement it with Guideline 2.4 "Provide mechanisms to help users find content, orient themselves within it, and navigate through it". The success criteria need to be testable and it would be difficult to test for an "unusual interface." However we have added a sentence to the intent section of 2.4 that says: "Unusual user interface features or behaviors may confuse people with cognitive disabilities."; (Please make sure the resolution is adapted for public consumption)