Thread Subject: Re: Startingdiscussionson theAccessibility APIproposal

Note

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From: Debbie Cook
Date: Fri, Jan 05 2007 10:50 AM

And there should be sufficient lead time before the application of any new
standard so that both IT and AT have an opportunity to implement. It is in
fact the work arounds that make it problematic for IT. If IT does not
conform to the existing work around, it gets declared inaccessible in the
final wash.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Barrett, Don" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: "TEITAC Web/Software Subcommittee" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 9:33 AM
Subject: Re: [teitac-websoftware]Startingdiscussionson theAccessibility
APIproposal


The other piece of this is that A T is always playing catch up with new
I T technologies as they develop. Support for web-based tables and
JavaScript event handlers are two good examples. Once 508 specified
table markup for headers and cell associations for multi-level tables,
and functional text for scripts, A T vendors jumped on these issues, and
screen readers got better and better over time in handling these
elements. The more specific an API can be for mainstream I T vendors,
the more the marketplace will be established so A T can come in and meet
the specified market needs.

Rather than ATIA being afraid of an API, I should think they would
welcome it, as long as it is one their members can code to.

Don

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