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<em> v. <i> and <strong> v. <b>

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From: jeb
Date: Sep 5, 2003 9:00AM

Earlier in August there was an interesting discussion regarding the "bold"
and "italics" issue. I just re-read the archives and still have questions.

In reading my HTML 4 Bible, it notes that although <B> and <i> have not been
deprecated, CSS is recommended. There is no similar statement for <strong>
and <em>. However, pretty much all browsers render <b> and <strong> exactly
the same way (ditto with <i> and <em>). Someone in the archive noted that
"all browsers" can handle <B> while a number of browsers still have problems
with CSS.

That discussion got into aural style sheets and issues related to how to do
the CSS code. It never answered my concern...

So, my question is simply, what difference does it make - if you use <b> and
<i>? From my reading, it is not deprecated, it doesn't apparently upset any
AT devices, both can have their attributed changed with CSS content.

My reason for asking is that some accessibility validators programs are now
citing the use of <B> and <I> with a "warning" statement. Because there may
be many such "errors" it stops the validation process because some arbitrary
maximum number of errors has been reached.

I use FrontPage 2002 as my authoring package and understand that there are a
number of things I have to do to make a standard FP file accessible (most of
which I have mastered), but I am not happy with the prospect of having to go
back and change all of my <B>'s to <strong>s, just to placate some "silly
interpretation." So is it a "silly interpretation" or a valid concern, and
can someone explain why these distinctions are important?

Many thanks.

jeb

John E. Brandt
Augusta, ME 04330

<EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >
www.jebswebs.com <http://www.jebswebs.com>;







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