Thread Subject: Re: Group D: 22(d) Readable without stylesheets

Note

This archival content is maintained by WebAIM and NCDAE on behalf of TEITAC and the U.S. Access Board . Additional details on the updates to section 508 and section 255 can be found at the Access Board web site.

From: Sean Hayes
Date: Mon, Dec 04 2006 7:20 AM

<quote Gregg>
If the page would be inaccessible to AT if you turned CSS off then you can't
have CSS in the set of technologies you rely on to make the page conform.
</quote>

There are too many negatives in that for me to get my head around.

If I reduce this to cases, either:
1 - CSS is required to be used in order to be accessible
2 - CSS required to not be used in order to be accessible
3 - use of CSS does not influence accessiblity.

(case 2 is actually not valid in this example, since the visual rendering model of HTML actually assumes a CSS type layout model and a default stylsheet, but ignoring that for the moment).

Which of these statements puts CSS in the baseline? And is baseline a property of the content or the rendering engine?

As I read your statement it says you can't have CSS in the baseline if (1).
Since (2) seems nonsensical (a technology is in the baseline if you don't use it). This would seem to leave (3). But some technologies (ascii text for example), seem to be so intrinsic that there is no content without them, and thus they necessarily fall into (1).

Perhaps since baseline is causing such confusion, you could provide a clearer definition of what it is, and how it should be applied.

Thanks,

Sean Hayes
Standards and Policy Team
Accessible Technology Group
Microsoft
Phone:
mob +44 7977 455002
office +44 117 9719730

-

WebAIM is an initiative of:
Center for Persons with Disabilities (CPD) Utah State University