1.4.10 Reflow - Guidance & notes for closed functionality software

[maryjom]

Split off from Issue #98 for focused work on 1.4.10 Reflow as applied to software with closed functionality.

Proposed guidance for Appendix A on Closed Functionality

In Guidance for SC 1.4.10 add a note:

Note 3: See also the discussion on Closed Functionality

In Appendix A: Success Criteria that are Problematic for Closed Functionality add the following bullet and explanation:

1.4.10 Reflow - because the text reflow support in a closed environment may be more limited than the support found in user agents for the Web, meeting Success Criterion 1.4.10 in a closed environment may place a much heavier burden on the content author, especially when there are memory-constraints. Additionally, some products with closed functionality have very small screens where two-dimensional scrolling is required for usage of the software functionality.

Comment threads on this topic

Mitchell's comment and alternate proposal

Responding to closed functionality in #98 (comment)

1.4.10 Reflow - because the text reflow support in a closed environment may be more limited than the support found in user agents for the Web, meeting Success Criterion 1.4.10 in a closed environment may place a much heavier burden on the content author, especially when there are memory-constraints. Additionally, some products with closed functionality have very small screens where two-dimensional scrolling is required for usage of the software functionality.

I'd like to add something like this:

Compared with other non-web software, closed functionality is more likely to prevent users from adjusting the size of application windows and content.

Also rephrase so we're not comparing closed functionality to web, but comparing it to non-closed software.

Sam's comment

Some systems don’t have idea of pixel size, not changeable by author. This is a case where web requirement is not reverent and should not be applied. There are already other requirements for text size outside of wcag2ict. In addition to adding note 3 (on closed functionality) from MJ comment into this SC the closed products section a general note about pixels should be added as it css pixels or device independent pixels are in other SC also.

[maryjom]

PR #193 adds a bullet of guidance in the SC Problematic for Closed Functionality section that was agreed upon in the 13 July meeting.