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

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From: Jon Gunderson
Date: May 17, 2002 10:50AM

I think the using style sheets to style content is the biggest step. In
most browsers you can adjust font size whether the font size is specified
in fixed or relative units.

There is an advantage to relative units if you designing liquid renderings
that adjust to the wdith of the graphical window, but in general browser
incompatibilites make this more of an art than a science. Most developers
still view the web a a graphical medium with an average width of 800x600
pixels. It is hard to convince developers with this mind set to use
technologies that provide them with less control over rendering. I think
getting them to use style sheets at all is a huge step.

You can send comments directly to the W3C Web Content Authoring
Group at
<EMAIL REMOVED>

Jon




On Fri, 17 May 2002, John Foliot - bytown internet wrote:

> Hear, hear!!
>
> 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 stlyesheets that the "display" becomes unpredictable in
> different browers/OS implementations. 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.
> [Priority 2] For example, in CSS, use 'em' or percentage lengths rather
> than 'pt' or 'cm', which are absolute units. If absolute units are used,
> validate that the rendered content is usable"
>
> While I feel comfortable in debating the folly of this mind set it does
open
> the debate up, as the WAI wording is counterproductive and, IMHO
against the
> spirit of Universal Accessibility.
>
> How can we, as committed developers and advocates, influence the
W3C to
> revisit their wording? Thoughts?
>
> JF
>
>
>
>
> >