User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Final Working Draft Open to Public
Review Until December 1, 1999
INTRODUCTION
The [1]Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the [2]World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) is fielding public commentary on the final working draft
of its [3]User Agent Accessibility Guidelines until December 1, 1999.
The following announcement is a plain text image of the hypertext document
located at:
http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/vicug/uagl_last_call.html
if you have access to the web, you are strongly encouraged to use the
hypertextualized version of this document, so as to take advantage of the
hyperlinks to related resources and background materials embedded therein.
This plain text notice was generated using Lynx, which was set to report
hyperlinks as numbers. A list of hyperlink references follows the body of
the document.
This document is separated into three parts:
Part 1. What Are the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines?
Part 2. What Is Last Call?
Part 3. Making Sure Your Voice Is Heard
_________________________________________________________________
Part 1: What Are the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines?
The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAGL) are part of a series of
accessibility guidelines published by the W3C's [4]Web Accessibility
Initiative. The series also includes the [5]Authoring Tool
Accessibility Guidelines and the [6]Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines.
The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines provides guidance for
developers of "user agents"--software which presents web-based content
to an end user, such as yourself. While it is common for people to use
the terms "user agent" and "browser" as synonyms, the term "user
agent" encompasses much more than just web browsers, such as Lynx,
Netscape Navigator, and Internet Explorer. The term "user agent" also
describes Open eBook players, Digital Talking Book players, streaming
media (such as RealAudio and RealVideo) players, and any other
applications which enable you to retrieve and review documents or
files which are encoded in what are usually thought of as web-based
formats, such as HTML, XML, SMIL, and SVG, to name but a few. It
also addresses the accessibility of multimedia players and plugins.
The purpose of the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines, therefore, is
to provide guidance for developers of "user agents" so that their
products will be accessible to people with disabilities. The UAGL
defines an "accessible user agent" as an application that allows users
with disabilities to retrieve and review Web content or which enables
access to web based content when the user agent is used in conjunction
with assistive technologies. The UAGL therefore, not only discuss the
accessibility of the user agent itself, but also how the user agent
exposes information to, and communicates with, assistive technologies
such as screen readers, screen magnifiers, braille displays, and voice
input software.
The Guidelines have been organized as follows:
1. There are eleven "guidelines" Each guideline includes:
+ a guideline number;
+ the statement of the guideline;
+ the rationale behind the guideline;
+ a list of checkpoint definitions.
2. Each guideline specifies one or more prioritized "checkpoints"
that explain how developers of user agents can satisfy the
guideline. Each checkpoint definition includes:
+ a checkpoint number;
+ the statement of the checkpoint;
+ the [7]priority of the checkpoint;
+ (in some cases) informative notes, clarifying examples, or
cross references to related guidelines or checkpoints;
+ A link to a section of the Techniques Document where
implementations and examples of the checkpoint are discussed;
Each checkpoint is intended to be specific enough that it can be
verified, while being sufficiently general to allow developers the
freedom to use the most appropriate strategies to meet the
checkpoint.
The Guidelines document includes a [8]conformance statement that
explains how programs that retrieve and render web-based content--such
as a browser, a PC-based Digital Talking Book Player, or a multimedia
player--can claim conformance to the User Agent Accessibility
Guidelines.
The Guidelines are also accompanied by another document, entitled
"[9]Techniques for User Agent Accessibility Guidelines". The
Techniques document explains in detail how software developers may
implement the checkpoints enumerated in the Guidelines. It also
includes references to other accessibility resources, such as
platform-specific software accessibility guidelines, which give
additional information on how a tool may satisfy each checkpoint.
(Please note that the Techniques document, which continues to evolve,
is not entering "last call", although comments about techniques are
still welcome.)
The Guidelines have been produced by the W3C's [10]User Agent
Guidelines Working Group as part of the [11]Web Accessibility
Initiative.
____________________________________________________
Part 2: What is Last Call?
The [12]User Agent Accessibility Guidelines have now entered "Last
Call" status. Within the W3C, "Last Call" status signifies a final
review period before a working draft becomes a "Proposed
Recommendation". Once the "Last Call" period ends on December 1, 1999,
the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines will then be circulated to
[13]W3C Member organizations for review--the final step in deciding
whether the Guidelines will or will not become a W3C Recommendation,
and, hence, carry the same weight as the markup languages (such as
HTML, SMIL, and StyleSheets) that form the foundation of the web.
Once the "last call" period has ended, all comments have been
evaluated, and the W3C Director, [14]Tim Berners-Lee, has reviewed the
document, the Guidelines will become a [15]Proposed Recommendation.
____________________________________________________
Part 3: Making Sure YOUR Voice Is Heard
Since this is the last opportunity to comment on the User Agent
Guidelines, you are strongly urged to take the time to [16]review the
Last Call Draft of the UAGL, in order to ensure that the guidelines
contained therein accurately reflect your concerns about the
accessibility of user agents. The web shouldn't be a cyber-ghetto
ringed with walls of silence, so let the [17]User Agent Guidelines
Working Group know what features you need built into a user agent, so
that you can use it obtain information from the web independently,
efficiently, and expeditiously, and without recourse to stripped-down
versions of web sites.
Once you have reviewed the [18]User Agent Guidelines you can
forward your comments to the User Agent Working Group by December 1,
1999, using the following eddress:
<[log in to unmask]>
All comments, and responses to them, will be [19]archived for public
reference. Comments that you wish to keep private, and which will
only be reviewed by W3C Members may be sent to:
<[log in to unmask]>
Please note that the "Last Call" period ends on December 1, 1999, and
that the Working Group will not be able to incorporate "Last Call"
comments which are received after that date.
The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group requests that
reviewers carefully consider the following unresolved issues:
* Checkpoints 10.1 and 10.2 require user agents to make
available to users information about the current input
configuration (e.g., keyboard input). These checkpoints have been
assigned different priorities: Priority 1 for user-specified
configuration and Priority 2 for author-specified configuration
(e.g., access keys). The Working Group did not reach consensus on
whether these two checkpoints should be merged into a single
checkpoint, and what the priority of such a checkpoint would be.
* Checkpoint 6.1 (Priority 1) asks user agents to implement the
accessibility features of supported specifications. In the
[20]Authoring Tool Guidelines Proposed Recommendation, checkpoints
that refer to content accessibility do so by "Relative Priority".
This means that the priority of the checkpoint in the UAGL depends
on how much you wish to conform to the [21]Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines. There has been a suggestion to make this
a checkpoint with a Relative Priority rather than Priority 1. The
Working Group did not reach consensus on whether the burden of
doing so (complicating the priority definition) outweighed the
benefit of consistency among the three sets of Guidelines. Also,
it is not clear that a Priority 3 requirement in WCAG would always
be a Priority 3 requirement in UAGL (i.e., it may be more
important to implement a feature than for the author to supply
it). Comments on the proposal to make this checkpoint a Relative
Priority checkpoint are welcome.
Hyperlink References
1. http://www.w3.org/WAI/
2. http://www.w3.org/
3. http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-WAI-USERAGENT-19990511
4. http://www.w3.org/WAI/
5. http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-AUTOOLS/
6. http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT
7. http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WD-WAI-USERAGENT-19991105/#priorities
8. http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WD-WAI-USERAGENT-19991105/#conformance
9. http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WD-WAI-USERAGENT-TECHS-19991105/
10. http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/
11. http://www.w3.org/WAI/
12. http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WD-WAI-USERAGENT-19991105
13. http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Member/List
14. http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/
15. http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Process/#RecsPR
16. http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WD-WAI-USERAGENT-19991105
17. http://www.w3.org/wai/ua/
18. http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WD-WAI-USERAGENT-19991105
19. http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ua/
20. http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/PR-WAI-AUTOOLS-19991026
21. http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505
--------------------------------------------------------
He that lives on Hope, dies farting
-- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1763
--------------------------------------------------------
Gregory J. Rosmaita <[log in to unmask]>
WebMaster and Minister of Propaganda, VICUG NYC
<http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/vicug/index.html>
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