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Re: Fixing WAI's writing styleDoes WCAG require ...

for

From: Maraikayar Prem Nawaz
Date: Nov 24, 2015 6:44PM

+1.
WCAG docs are hard to understand and interpret. Especially for many of us
for whom English is not the primary language.

On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 11:52 AM, Chaals McCathie Nevile <
<EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> TL;DR: You need to make concrete proposals for changes to text, because
> WAI cannot just hire a writer to fix stuff for you. So file bugs against
> WCAG.
>
> On Thu, 19 Nov 2015 20:12:07 +0100, Chagnon | PubCom.com <
> <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> Paul Adam wrote:
>> "WCAG indeed has many loopholes."
>>
>> In a way, yes, you're right about that.
>>
> [WCAG is badly written, which causes problems, and WAI should hire
> professional writers who understand clear communication, regulation, and
> standards]
>
> I agree that plain language is important, and a standard should be as
> clear as possible.
>
> But asking WAI to hire professional writers is like asking WebAIM to fix
> the web's accessibility. There isn't a clear way for it to happen.
>
> WAI is part of W3C, which brings a certain amount of funding. A lot of the
> 7 WAI staff are employed on, and paid for by, research contracts with the
> European Union or US government in some form or other.
>
> W3C specifications are made by practitioners, who volunteer their time to
> W3C. Many of them are organisations - TPG, Deque, Yandex, Microsoft,
> Pearson, SSB, RNIB, and others you may know which also join W3C, meaning
> they pay membership fees which provide the funding I mentioned earlier.
>
> The process to make W3C specifications is roughly as follows:
> - Identify something people agrees needs to be clearly specified as a
> standard for the Web
> - Organise a Working Group to develop a W3C Recommendation.
> - That group proposes a series of drafts, which are public and meant to
> get very broad public feedback. Most groups, including all WAI groups, now
> do all their work in public.
> - The group (remember, basically volunteers) respond to feedback, to
> improve the documents.
> - Convince Tim Berners-Lee that they have done the best job they could
> with the resources they had.
>
> If you want better documents, it is important to file comments explaining
> the problem, as well as outlining solutions.
>
> Every "W3C Recommendation" has a section called "Status of This Document"
> right near the front, that says how to file comments on it. Please do so.
>
> Note that for some time WAI has resisted making substantive changes to
> WCAG 2.0
>
> One way to change that would be to start filing bugs if WCAG 2.0 is
> ambiguous, or its requirements do not achieve the goals, or the writing is
> unclear.
>
> cheers
>
> Chaals
>
> --
> Charles McCathie Nevile - web standards - CTO Office, Yandex
> <EMAIL REMOVED> - - - Find more at http://yandex.com
> > > > >