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Re: Link labels and APA citations

for

From: deborah.kaplan@suberic.net
Date: Oct 17, 2014 2:03PM

On Fri, 17 Oct 2014, Chagnon | PubCom wrote:
> Why has the accessibility community developed standards that are in direct
> conflict with professional publishing requirements that have been in place
> for 100+ years?

Alternatively, can the accessibility community reach out to APA,
Chicago, MLA, and the others to see if we can be a player in the next
edition of each of the standards?

> How likely is it that professional writers and editors, both those in the
> SMT (science medical technical) fields and conventional publishing, will go
> against their industry standards and switch to whatever WCAG says?

It is 0% likely, because trade journals and scholarly publishers
have standards, and if you don't follow them, you won't get
published. I happen to think not using the serial comma is an
abomination, but if I want my work to get published in one of my
primary journals I do not use it. It's not a matter of choice or
decision, it's a matter of published or not published.

> Wouldn't it be more effective for users if WAI/WCAG would first learn the
> professional publishing standards, and then meld with the industry rather
> than fight it?

Working with the industry makes more sense than just passively
learning from it. The fact is in enormous amount of published
work is still paper and is going to be for the foreseeable future
in scholarly work, and the lion's share of scholarship is
actually both paper and digital. Could we work with the style
guide creators to help them develop standards that work with
paper-only, electronic-only, and hybrid?

Deborah Kaplan