Proposed edits to WCAG 1.0

Status of this document

This document is made available to the WCAG WG for discussion. It doesn't represent the consensus of any group.


Incorporate Errata.


  1. Typos.
  2. Link to PDF document.
  3. Publish valid PDF document
  4. Clarification of the rationale for Guideline 1.
  5. Relative units and sizing of images (clarification of checkpoint 3.3)
  6. Placement of labels for form controls (note to checkpoint 10.2)
  7. Meta data conformance schemes
  8. Text in images - clarification of checkpoint 3.1.

Typos and general things to do

  1. Run .html through tidy to produce xhtml
  2. Errata to the errata...8 is missing an end quote. There is a quote mark before When an appropriate..., but no end quote.Style of paragraphs is not consistent. 1, 2, 6 don't include extra blank line at the end, where as the other paragraphs do.
  3. Proposed: Just have one errata page. Everything below the line is for the old spec. HTML errata example.
  4. Fix broken links to external sites
  5. State that order of guidelines is not significant (optional)
  6. In Techs documents, formatting of examples - some are too wide.
  7. example for 11.1 in the css techs (null alt-text )
  8. The grammatical syntax for periods and the brackets should be checked for [14:19:14] <Ian> both 2.2 and 8.1.

    I've updated the source as follows: No period after the closing bracket (like the other [Priority N]). So I've added a period in 8.1 at the end of the sentence and before the brackets start.

  9. add proposed text to techs on appletsala Peter Korn's last call comments from March 1999.
  10. All techniques documents and alternative forms of all documents (text, PDF, zip, etc.) will have to be regenerated to capture changes to checkpoint wording.
  11. Update HTML 4.01 reference (from HTML 4.0)
  12. Update short names and URIs to WAI specs.
  13. Wendy C affiliation should be changed to: (Trace until 1999, then W3C)

Stickier issues

1. HTML Techs - HTTP status code

Comments from Nir Dagan March 1999

2. Defn of text element

Bugs in definition of text element?

IJ: "non-text elmeent" is used in 1.1 normatively and never defined. What is defined: "text element": An element that causes text characters to be part of the document is called a text element.

Proposed: Add UAAG 1.0 clarification about what a non-text element is; define it (since not in wcag 1.0).

WAC proposes scope of changes be limited to those things that don't open up new discussion.

IJ not sure yet.

3. Acknowledge that there is a bug for XML in relation to checkpoint 6.1

XML work without style sheets?

WAC: For 2.0. Checkpoint 4.4 Ensure that content remains usable when technologies that modify default user agent processing or behavior are turned off or not supported

WCAG 2.0 Issue: define "default" for purposes of this checkpoint. If "default" were taken to mean "a user agent's default rendering", then this would defeat the purpose of the checkpoint, because (for many user agents) the default is to apply style sheets, invoke scripts and programmatic objects, etc.

IJ Proposal for 6.1: Add a note to the spec that acknowledges this bug for XML and will be addressed in WCAG 2.0.

4. Bug in relation to spaces and I18N problem

Issue: Reference to "spaces" poses I18N problems. Checkpoint 10.5

Proposed: Clarify where "spaces" are appropriate in the given written language. (for distinguishing information)

$Date: 2002/04/09 21:53:53 $ Wendy Chisholm