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Thread: MAILTO: element

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Number of posts in this thread: 7 (In chronological order)

From: John Foliot - bytown internet
Date: Mon, Mar 11 2002 9:35AM
Subject: MAILTO: element
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Situation: WAI Priority 2 - 10.1 states: Until user agents allow users to
turn off spawned windows, do not cause pop-ups or other windows to appear
and do not change the current window without informing the user.

Question: Would not the <_a href="mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = "></a> code create
a pop-up window? In the major browsers it launches the associated email
client (Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape Messanger, etc.) in a seperate
"window". One could argue that this is "anticipated" behaviour and is not
an accessibility issue per-se, but I'm curious about this and would like to
poll the group.

Thoughts?

JF



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From: Mark Rew
Date: Mon, Mar 11 2002 9:50AM
Subject: Re: MAILTO: element
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I have used this mthod, mailto: in my pages, and I use pages with the mailto:
technique. I do not feel this is an accessibility because the user's e-mail
application that they use on a daily bases should already be accessible to
them.

Just for the record I'm using Outlook Express which is the default e-mail that
pops up when I click on a "Send mail" link. I access it with Jaws 4.0.

Mark
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Foliot - bytown internet" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: "WebAIM forum" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Sent: Monday, March 11, 2002 11:35 AM
Subject: MAILTO: element


> Situation: WAI Priority 2 - 10.1 states: Until user agents allow users to
> turn off spawned windows, do not cause pop-ups or other windows to appear
> and do not change the current window without informing the user.
>
> Question: Would not the <_a href="mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = "></a> code create
> a pop-up window? In the major browsers it launches the associated email
> client (Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape Messanger, etc.) in a seperate
> "window". One could argue that this is "anticipated" behaviour and is not
> an accessibility issue per-se, but I'm curious about this and would like to
> poll the group.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> JF
>
>
>
> ---
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
> visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
>
>
> ----
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
> visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
>
>


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From: Darold Lindquist
Date: Mon, Mar 11 2002 10:13AM
Subject: Re: MAILTO: element
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My thoughts are that in most cases this method is preferable and actually
improves accessibility/usability of the feature. When the window opens into
the E-mail client, the user is placed into the familiar interface of that
program. By sending the message from the E-mail program the user will also
then have a copy of the message saved in their sent messages folder, making
the correspondence easier to archive and reference.

Darold

At 11:35 AM 3/11/02, you wrote:
>Situation: WAI Priority 2 - 10.1 states: Until user agents allow users to
>turn off spawned windows, do not cause pop-ups or other windows to appear
>and do not change the current window without informing the user.
>
>Question: Would not the <_a href="mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = "></a> code create
>a pop-up window? In the major browsers it launches the associated email
>client (Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape Messanger, etc.) in a seperate
>"window". One could argue that this is "anticipated" behaviour and is not
>an accessibility issue per-se, but I'm curious about this and would like to
>poll the group.
>
>Thoughts?
>
>JF
>
>
>
>---
>To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
>visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
>
>
>----
>To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
>visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/


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From: John Foliot - bytown internet
Date: Mon, Mar 11 2002 10:21AM
Subject: RE: MAILTO: element
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Agreed, however, it *DOES* pop up a new window... It is one of the vagaries
of the W3C's Guidelines

JF

>

From: Jean Watkins
Date: Mon, Mar 11 2002 10:40AM
Subject: Re: MAILTO: element
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Isn't okay if it opens a new window as long as the user is informed? For
example, we'll occassionally open a new window on links to an outside site,
but we state on the page that links to outside sites will open a new browser
window. I would think that when someone clicks on a MAILTO link, that they
would understand a new window is going to open. Is that too much assuming?
What is considered acceptable for "informing the user"?

Jean L. Watkins
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://www.AbilityForum.com
Community Access Through Technology
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Foliot - bytown internet" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Sent: Monday, March 11, 2002 12:21 PM
Subject: RE: MAILTO: element


> Agreed, however, it *DOES* pop up a new window... It is one of the
vagaries
> of the W3C's Guidelines
>
> JF
>
> >

From: Kynn Bartlett
Date: Mon, Mar 11 2002 2:04PM
Subject: Re: MAILTO: element
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At 11:35 AM -0500 3/11/02, John Foliot - bytown internet wrote:
>Situation: WAI Priority 2 - 10.1 states: Until user agents allow users to
>turn off spawned windows, do not cause pop-ups or other windows to appear
>and do not change the current window without informing the user.
>Question: Would not the <_a href="mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = "></a> code create
>a pop-up window? In the major browsers it launches the associated email
>client (Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape Messanger, etc.) in a seperate
>"window". One could argue that this is "anticipated" behaviour and is not
>an accessibility issue per-se, but I'm curious about this and would like to
>poll the group.

Nope, it's not meant to apply to that. The author can't control the
mailto link and doesn't necessarily create a pop-up window. The action
of the link is entirely up to the user agent, and that's up to the
browser to work out, and can be configured as per the user's request.

Mailto links aren't an accessibility problem.

--Kynn

--
Kynn Bartlett < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > http://kynn.com
Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain http://idyllmtn.com
Web Accessibility Expert-for-hire http://kynn.com/resume
Next Book: Teach Yourself CSS in 24 http://cssin24hours.com


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From: John Foliot - bytown internet
Date: Mon, Mar 11 2002 2:50PM
Subject: RE: MAILTO: element
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Hey Kynn,

As I suspected, but I threw it out for discussion anyway. A while back
there was a thread about some US govenmental weenie "insisting" on some
bizare interpretations of Section 508 stuff (acording to this guy even
layout tables HAD to have Summaries!), and here in Canada (as you know)
Priority 2 is now mandated for government web sites. The W3C Guidelines can
be vague some times (what _is_ flicker? - 508 is more precise here), and
thus open to equally bizarro interpretations. I was just checking to see if
anybody had encounterd this. I also ran it by Chuck Letourneau directly
(whom I believe you know, I do some stuff with him occaisonally), and he
mentioned that it had not come up for discussion during the initial drafting
of the WAI guidelines at the W3C. He concurs that it falls under the
"anticipated" behaviour heading.

I would argue one of your points however, in that the current crop of
*major* popular browsers (user agents) do not allow this type of
configuration... they automatically "pop up" a new window and the user has
but 2 choices, follow the link (and create the pop-up) or not to follow the
link (however they CAN copy and paste to another application...). In either
case however, "..user agents {DO NOT YET} allow users to turn off spawned
windows" in this instance, so it was a valid question no?

Anyway, just some mental chewing gum to think about and discuss.

Cheers!

JF



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