- From: Janina Sajka <janina@rednote.net>
- Date: Tue, 12 May 2015 10:10:13 -0400
- To: Henri Sivonen <hsivonen@hsivonen.fi>
- Cc: Shane McCarron <shane@aptest.com>, "Michael[tm] Smith" <mike@w3.org>, "public-html@w3.org" <public-html@w3.org>
Henri Sivonen writes: > The PFWG is supposed to work on accessibility and not Semantics. Is this the nub of the issue? That the W3C, after 20 years of WAI, still doesn't understand that Semantics are essential for accessibility? In my student days, accessible textbooks came on reel to reel tape. Imagine finding the beginning of Chapter 3 on that medium. We considered it a technical nehancement to have low pitched beeps recorded on the media, so that in fast play mode, we could count the beeps -- 1, 2 3, 4, -- as the high pitched whine of speeded up speech screeched by -- all to be able to get to Page 68 where tomorrow's assignment required attention. Yes, casettes were a big step forward. But, the biggest step was DAISY, and it continues successful because DAISY exposes semantics and allows navigation by semantic structure. I say again, semantics is accessibility. Janina -- Janina Sajka, Phone: +1.443.300.2200 sip:janina@asterisk.rednote.net Email: janina@rednote.net Linux Foundation Fellow Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup: http://a11y.org The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Chair, Protocols & Formats http://www.w3.org/wai/pf
Received on Tuesday, 12 May 2015 14:10:40 UTC