Thread Subject: FW: Short Names Proposal

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From: Gregg Vanderheiden
Date: Wed, Jun 06 2007 3:00 PM
Subject: FW: Short Names Proposal

All of the Subgroups were asked to propose short names for their provisions.



As a part of an exercise for two of my students I had them go through and
read all the provisions and suggest short names for them.



There were a couple ways to do short names.



1. try to capture the meaning of the provision

2. have a word or short phrase

* to use as a quick handle to talk about items (and track them as
they move)

* to cue you into the general topic of the provision

* to NOT try to capture the meaning of the provision





After having done this in WCAG I recommend that we use the second approach.



RATIONALE:

Trying to capture the meaning of the provision in a short phrase has the
following problems.

1. We should already make the provisions as short as we can and be
accurate. Thus a shorter one wouldn't be accurate.

2. People start using the short names as the guidelines

3. The short name and long provision can start to fight each other

4. You can generate just as much discussion on the short name wording as
the full provision.





In WCAG we therefore just went with simple handles that ranged from 1 word
(where possible) to a short phrase. NONE had verbs.





The results of the students work and a quick review by me for accuracy can
be found at

http://teitac.org/wiki/SHORT_NAME_PROPOSAL



The students also came up with some interesting observations and issues
which i will post separately to the groups that are involved with the
provisions.



To make it easier for groups to review I marked which groups we designated
(on the EWG page) to go with each provision.



Groups are free to use or change these. Just done for convenience since -
if we start moving things around - it is much better to have short names for
things than to use numbers which can change.



(PS probably should approve or change and tell EWG so they can update
official pages.) the proposal page is NOT OFFICIAL. )


Gregg

------------------------

Gregg C Vanderheiden Ph.D.
Professor - Depts of Ind. Engr. & BioMed Engr.
Director - Trace R & D Center
University of Wisconsin-Madison
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From: Walser, Kate
Date: Thu, Jun 07 2007 12:15 PM
Subject: Re: FW: Short Names Proposal

Gregg provided a link to the short names proposed by 2 of his students.
(Link for reference: http://teitac.org/wiki/SHORT_NAME_PROPOSAL
<http://teitac.org/wiki/SHORT_NAME_PROPOSAL> )



I recommend we include these as they will help people quickly scan to
get a sense of what these new standards are about and what's covered.
This approach has been used in various arenas, including with usability
guidelines and principles, and has worked well.



Thanks, Greg,

Kate



Kate Walser

Director, Usability Center of Excellence

SRA International, Inc.

4300 Fair Lakes Court

Fairfax, VA 22033

(703) 502-1170