Re: the market hasn't spoken - it hasn't bothered to listened [was Re: fear of "invisible metadata"]

On Jun 26, 2007, at 6:36 AM, Gijs Kruitbosch wrote:

>
> Henri Sivonen wrote:
> <snip>
>>> can expose the ability to enter the appropriate role perhaps from  
>>> either a
>>> dropdown list of standard roles, or with the added ability to  
>>> "custom"
>>> create.  We currently have *today* (on my cow path of life)  
>>> WYSIWYG editors
>>> that allow similar functionality with CSS.
>> WYSIWYG editors then
>>
>> I still find it curious how accessibility experts have faith in  
>> authoring software gaining all manner of features while at the  
>> same time assuming explicitly or implicitly that AT will be more  
>> or less frozen to its current state.
> <snip>
> [... ].
>
> In this case, attributes which can be applied to versatile elements  
> are a better solution than separate elements with limited  
> functionality for every possible semantic the WG can think of  
> (which I'm sure will be a lot). As Aaron also said, having builtin  
> functionality will be good. Go for it. But don't stop authors from  
> making their own creations (which are just a little more weird/ 
> pretty/versatile than the things the WG thought of) accessible.

One idea that comes to mind from this discussion is that the new AT  
related elements (like <progress>) might be defined in terms of @role  
by indicating what the @role value would be by default (and  
cautioning that it should not be changed except in rare circumstances  
etc.). I think this would raise awareness about @role and demonstrate  
its proper use. Its this type of default usage that helps authors  
understand and properly extend these facilities.

Take care,
Rob