3 ms·

Can you give an example of what you mean - a scenario where WCAG guidelines are too ambiguous? https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/quickref/ https://www.w3.org/WAI/W

• akersten 5y ago
  Sure, any time: > text can be resized without assistive technology up to 200 percent without loss of content or functionality. What does "without loss of content or functionality" mean? If the resized text flys off the side of the screen (but there's a scrollbar now), is that a loss of functionality? I sure can't read it as quickly anymore, because I have to scroll to it. So that's less functional to me, but that's my opinion. And there isn't a layout solution to that, because by definition making text larger will mean less text on the page, assuming full-page content. Does "without assistive technology" mean my website needs to manually implement a Size Up/Size Down control, or can I assume your browser has it built in? You might consider that pedantic. But I can take almost any of these guidelines and ask the same questions. And the answer is always something like "what a reasonable person would think." But we're developers, and highly disturbed by ambiguity. So saying "the law is to follow these guidelines" doesn't fit right when the guidelines are not empirically defined. > For the visual presentation of blocks of text, a mechanism is available to achieve the following: Foreground and background colors can be selected by the user. Does "use an extension for your user-agent to swap out the CSS" count? I can't think of a single mainstream website that lets me choose the color of my text. > Web pages do not contain anything that flashes more than three times in any one second period. What is a flash? What is an anything? Can I embed a flashing YouTube video in my user-generated content that I post to make your website in violation of the WCAG? Do you have to implement technical countermeasures to prevent me from doing that? Does YouTube have to prevent users from uploading such content? These are the kind of questions that have to be answered before we could seriously consider this as practical law.
  • thorum 5y ago
    The WCAG guidelines do a good job of answering questions like these, in my experience. Regarding resizing text, the WCAG guidelines provide the following example of a website that meets the standards: "A user uses a zoom function in his user agent to change the scale of the content. All the content scales uniformly, and the user agent provides scroll bars, if necessary." https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/resize-text.html https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/resize-text.html (There is also a note under the guideline that due to widespread confusion on this specific rule, as long as you meet the basic criteria listed under "sufficient techniques" you are considered OK.) > Does "use an extension for your user-agent to swap out the CSS" count? Yes: https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Techniques/general/G156 https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Techniques/general/G156 > What is a flash? What is an anything? A flash is "a pair of opposing changes in relative luminance that can cause seizures in some people if it is large enough and in the right frequency range" according to the definitions listed here, along with links to more detailed explanations and examples: https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/three-flashes-or-below-threshold.html#key-terms https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/three-flashes-or... > Can I embed a flashing YouTube video in my user-generated content that I post to make your website in violation of the WCAG? Do you have to implement technical countermeasures to prevent me from doing that? Does YouTube have to prevent users from uploading such content? Clarification on user generated content is part of the WCAG 3.0 working draft, which you can read here: https://www.w3.org/TR/wcag-3.0/#user-generated-content https://www.w3.org/TR/wcag-3.0/#user-generated-content