[Irl-dean] Re: Accessibility of CHM Format Resources

[Barry McMullin]

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 drice at nda.ie wrote:

> Draft guideline 4.2 from WCAG 2.0 states "Ensure that user interfaces are
> accessible or provide an accessible alternative" and a Level 1 Success
> Criteria for this is "At least one plug-in required to access the content
> conforms to at least the default set of conformance requirements of the
> User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 1.0".  Assuming for a moment
> the CHM viewer does comply with UAAG 1.0 (and at a brief glance, IMO, it
> would appear to do so) content in the CHM format could potentially conform
> to WCAG 2.0 if it conformed to the other WCAG 2.0 guidelines.

Thanks for the clarification, Donal!

Two quick points:

- WCAG 2.0 is, of course, still unstable and not referencable.  So
  nobody should be encouraged to either sell or buy anything
  based on speculation about whether it may or may not conform to
  WCAG 2.0 ...

- That said, it is not at all obvious to me that the "CHM viewer"
  (by which I assume you mean the standard Windows Help viewer)
  would conform to UAAG 1.0 - not, at least, in the case of
  working with CHM content.  My prima facie reservation is that
  CHM is apparently based on HTML 3.2 content, which therefore
  cannot support many of the things that UAAG wants to offer.

- Of course, this objection goes away if CHM is updated to be
  based on HTML 4 (or, better, XHTML) + CSS ... but then the
  viewer morphs into a slighly souped up Internet Explorer
  anyway.  Again: CHM is not bringing anything new to the
  *accessibility* equation.  It can only add a little extra value
  (download ease and speed) after the basic grunt work of
  accessible, structural, markup has been done.  Still no free
  lunch.

To repeat myself (I can't help it!) CHM is an obsolete
technology, predating HTML 4. .  It is not, by any measure, a
"new accessibility solution" (in fact, none of those three words
apply!). I guess the readers of this list are largely agreed on
this - the question is just how to communicate it clearly...

Best - Barry.