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RE: WAI needs to rethink and revisit (was Printable character bet ween adjacent links)

for

From: Jukka Korpela
Date: May 17, 2002 6:54AM

John Foliot wrote:

> I am currently embroiled in a debate with an associate over
> the use (or non-use) of fixed font sizes. His argument is that if he
> does not use fixed font sizes in his stylesheets that the "display"
becomes
> unpredictable in different browers/OS implementations.

Well, they are unpredictable indeed, as far as the author is concerned. What
is your associate trying to prove?

> He points to the WAI Guidelines
> wording as justification: (This statement is found in the Guidelines
> (http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/)) "3.4 Use relative rather
> than absolute units in mark-up language attribute values and style sheet
> property values.

I wouldn't say this is wrong. It just has an implied condition, which should
be made explicit: _if_ you suggest font sizes at all (and you should
normally do that for _parts_ of a document only). For example, if you wish
to make some text appear in smaller print, use font-size:80% rather than
font-size:10pt. Isn't the rationale behind this obvious?

> "- - If absolute units are used,
> validate that the rendered content is usable"

Now _that's_ obscure. Note the word "usable". A switch to usability in an
accessibility document is a bit alarming. Absolute units cannot possibly
result in universal accessibility. I guess this formulation results from a
compromise, and actually means something like this: "If however you use
absolute units (and we're here having a quarrel on whether you ever should
do that, but maybe someone is pointing at you with a gun), at least try and
make sure they are accessible to the great majority, by using sufficiently
large font size (and we can't agree on a specific recommendation here)."

The practical side of my mind sees the point here. We cannot change
everything at once, and if people use fixed font sizes, it's better to make
them use reasonably large sizes, like 12pt or 14pt.

> How can we, as committed developers and advocates, influence
> the W3C to revisit their wording? Thoughts?

Make your company join the W3C, and join the WAI working group. It will take
money and work, of course. With much smaller investments, and with smaller
chances of success, you could participate in the WAI Interest Group (a
mailing list):
http://www.w3.org/WAI/IG/

--
Jukka Korpela
TIEKE Tietoyhteiskunnan kehitt