[CEUD-ICT] "Liquid Layout" and WCAG (2.0) - opinions?

[Barry McMullin]

Hi Folks -

Just looking for some informed opinions here.

My default view has always been that all web page or site
claiming WCAG conformance should demonstrate a "reasonable
degree" of liquid layout.  The devil, of course, in the details -
what version of WCAG, at what level, and what qualifies as a
"reasonable degree"?

I have just quickly trawled through WCAG 2.0, where we have this:

   1.4.4 Resize text: Except for captions and images of text, text
   can be resized without assistive technology up to 200 percent
   without loss of content or functionality. (Level AA)

which seems fairly concrete and straightforward. And certain
things would clearly fail here - for example, if resizing text by
200% caused some text to become obscured or otherwise
unintelligible. But does enforced horizontal scrolling (which is
the "classic" symptom of "non-liquid" layout) count as a "loss of
... functionality"? (And at what screen/window size?)

"Understanding WCAG 2.0" does add some worthwhile elaboration;
under "Examples of Success Criterion 1.4.4" (which I take to be
examples of *satisfying* it) we have:

   A user uses a zoom function in his user agent to change the
   scale of the content. All the content scales uniformly, and the
   user agent provides scroll bars, if necessary.

The implication of this seems to be that, in general, it is
acceptable for resizing (even only up to 200%) to cause a need
for horizontal scrolling, as long as all the content can still be
viewed in this way.  Which would suggest that "liquid layout" per
se, is not a WCAG requirement at all.

On the other hand, among the "Sufficient Techniques" (for meeting
SC 1.4.4) we have: "G146: Using liquid layout" which is explained
as designing pages so as to be able "... to present content
without introducing horizontal scroll bars by using layout
techniques that adapt to the available horizontal space."

So, taking a strictly formal/legalistic approach to WCAG 2.0 (and
I know that is not necessarily a wise or useful thing to do, but
in some contexts, particularly procurement, it may be
unavoidable), it seems to be saying that using a liquid layout is
*sufficient* but not *necessary* to meet SC 1.4.4.

Is that the way other people understand it? Any comments or
advice would be welcome!

Best regards - Barry.

--
Barry McMullin,
Director, The Rince Research Institute (www.rince.ie):
   "Researching Innovative Engineering Technologies"
Dublin City University
   phone: +353-1-700-5432
   web: http://www.eeng.dcu.ie/~mcmullin/