History of Changes to HTML Techniques for WCAG 2.0 Working Drafts

Pending work items

• Links to references need to be standardized so that a reference to an external document points to a reference at the end of the document which then links to the external resource.
• Currently only link to HTML 4.01 elements and attributes. Document needs to be updated for XHTML.
• There is a current issues list for HTML techniques.

19 November 2004 Draft

• Added techniques:
  • Site Map
  • Collection Information
  • Use non-deprecated markup
  • Relative size
  • Caption for data tables
  • Link text
  • Link separation
  • Non-embedded text alternatives for objects
    
  • Direct accessibility of programmatic objects
  • Page usable when programmatic objects unsupported
  • Alternative content for programmatic objects
  • Alternative content for applet
  • Alternative text for applet
  • Link to obtain plugin viewers
  • CSS fallback
  • Label positioning
  • Text alternatives for scripts
  • JavaScript URLs
  • Scripted form submission
  • Direct accessible scripts
    
• Added mapping to Guidelines and Success Criteria for all techniques (note many still don't relate to a guideline)
• Updated references to WCAG 1.0 techniques to corresponding WCAG 2.0 techniques
• Moved links to the HTML 4.01 specification to the Resources section of each technique
• Additions and clarifications to Use of the title attribute
• Moved Markup and style sheets and CSS instead of presentational markup to the CSS section
• Moved "CSS to change list style" to CSS techniques
• Minor wording changes throughout to improve clarity and consistency
• Created an appendix for "fallback" techniques and moved the following 5 techniques into the appendix:
  1. Link separation
  2. Direct accessibility of programmatic objects
  3. CSS fallback
  4. Label positioning
  5. Place-holding characters in empty controls (deprecated)
• Deleted techniques:
  • Automatic activation of keyboard shortcuts
  • Accesskey conflicts
  • Image titles
  • The title attribute on the table element (optional) [moved information into The caption element (optional) and Summarizing data tables (optional)]
• Cleaned up references
• Added Editorial Notes as appropriate to highlight issues.

30 July 2004 Draft

• Expanded introduction
• Fixed inconsistencies in meta refresh and meta redirect techniques
• Modified section headers section to clarify purpose
• Moved suggestion to style headers to CSS section
• Removed section on structural grouping in favour of existing techniques, mapped (sometimes secondarily) to the guideline on semantic markup
• Cleaned up content of title attribute technique
• Removed "uncategorized techniques" section and moved techniques into appropriate homes
• Marked text links for CSIM as deprecated
• Created placeholder section for script techniques
• Added techniques:
  • Glossary
  • Header misuse
  • Blink
  • Marquee
  • Supplemental meaning cues
  • CSS instead of presentational markup
  • Abuse of list markup
  • Layout tables (deprecated)
  • Automatic activation of keyboard shortcuts
  • Accesskey conflicts
  • Anchors and targets
  • Null alt text
  • Misuse of alternative text
  • Text in images
  • Background images
  • Use Client Side Image Map
  • Frame name
  • Tabular forms
  • Keyboard shortcuts for directly accessible scripts
  • Abstract event handlers
  • Auto submit combo boxes

28 July 2003 Draft

• Edited Abstract (added links, included link to XHTML, removed paragraph that said,

  This document is part of a series of documents about techniques for authoring accessible Web content. For information about the other documents in the series, please refer to "Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0" [WCAG10-TECHS].

• in Identifying changes in language
  • 2nd bullet of description: changed to "speech synthesizers that support multiple languages will be able to speak the text" (from "speech synthesizers that speak multiple languages will be able to generate the text in the appropriate")
  • 3rd bullet of description: changed to "Marking changes in language can benefit future developements in technology, for example users who are unable to translate between languages themselves will be able to use machines to translate unfamiliar languages." ("Users who are unable to translate between...")
  • example: replaced "q" element with quotes, added closing span element at end, and changed all elements to lower case (from upper case).
  • added reference to "Language tagging in HTML and XML"
• in Emphasis edited the description to read "The em and strong elements were designed to indicate structural emphasis that may be rendered in a variety of ways (font style changes, speech inflection changes, etc.). The b and i elements were deprecated in HTML 4.01 and XHTML because they were used to create a specific visual effect."
• added references for XHTML and WCAG 2.0

11 July 2003 Draft

The previous draft was published March 2002.

• formatting of examples and checklist items
• added abstract and status sections
• added references at the end
• major changes to content were not made, however editorial notes mark content that is likely to change significantly in the near future.
• attempted to provide a code example and "checklist item" for every technique.

$Date: 2004/11/18 20:02:06 $ $Author: wendy $