ACTION-23: Ask WCAG WG to modify intent for 1.3.1 per proposal #2

[MichaelC]: see http://www.w3.org/2012/07/05-wai-wcag-minutes.html#item02

WCAG working group agreed at 5 July meeting to modify intent as follows:

2nd paragraph gets replaced with “Sighted users perceive
structure through various visual cues — headings are often in a larger,
bold font separated from paragraphs by blank lines; list items are
preceded by a bullet and perhaps indented; paragraphs are separated by a
blank line; items that share a common characteristic are organized into
tabular rows and columns with their headers; form fields may be
positioned as groups that share text labels; a different background
color may be used to indicate that several items are related to each
other; words that have special status are indicated by changing the font
family and /or bolding, italicizing, or underlining them and so on.
HAVING THIS STRUCTURE AND THESE RELATIONSHIPS PROGRAMMATICALLY
DETERMINED OR AVAILABLE IN TEXT ENSURES THAT INFORMATION IMPORTANT FOR
COMPREHENSION WILL BE PERCEIVABLE TO ALL.

Replace the seventh paragraph with "There may also be cases
where it may be a judgment call as to whether the relationships should
be programmatically determined or be presented in text. However, when
technologies support programmatic relationships, it is strongly
encouraged that information and relationships be programmatically
determined rather than described in text.

WCAG's resolution on paragraph 7 is sufficient but their edit to paragraph 2 was not acceptable to the task force because it is not explicit enough about tables.

Ask for subsequent edit to paragraph 2:

Sighted users perceive structure AND RELATIONSHIPS through various visual cues — headings are often in a larger, bold font separated from paragraphs by blank lines; list items are preceded by a bullet and perhaps indented; paragraphs are separated by a blank line; form fields may be positioned as groups that share text labels; a different background color may be used to indicate that several items are related to each other; words that have special status are indicated by changing the font family and /or bolding, italicizing, or underlining them; ITEMS THAT SHARE A COMMON CHARACTERISTIC ARE ORGANIZED INTO A TABLE WHERE THE RELATIONSHIP OF CELLS SHARING THE SAME ROW OR COLUMN AND THE RELATIONSHIP OF EACH CELL TO ITS ROW AND/OR COLUMN HEADER ARE NECESSARY FOR UNDERSTANDING; and so on. Having THESE structures and relationships programmatically determined or available in text ensures that information important for comprehension will be perceivable by all.

WCAG accepted subsequent edit on July 12th so this action item can now be closed.