Offering an alternative perspective

As I struggle to complete my action item for help and support, it seems that perhaps we are focused on authors providing a solution rather than just having them identify possible problems and letting assistive technology provide the solution.  I suspect you may have already discussed this type of approach.  I have tried to explain it below.

I think we need to identify potential issues rather than implying that the author will provide the solution.  For example, the literal term and example imply that the author will supply the substitue value for the idiom.  What if we just ask the author to identify the idiom and ask the user agent or AT (perhaps via a service) to provide the literal replacement? This does rely on more sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) to make the substitution - is that reasonable? This allows the author to identify the potential issue which is much easier than providing a solution/substitution that may not work for all users. I think this may also work better for symbol replacement. We also need to provide a mechanism for the author to provide the solution.  One example is providing the replacements via a JSON file and a browser extension will perform the substitution.  

This also depends upon who we expect to use this specification? I believe that the average author of a blog, corporate content, or content management system (CMS) is not likely to add the necessary substitutions. If our target market is publishers or large scale authors, then I think the substitution model can work.  However, as artificial intelligence gets more prevalent then some of the necessary substitutions can be made by assistive technology. But, until then the author can provide the substitution as noted above. In my opinion, identifying the problem rather than the solution <span aui="idiom">opens the door </span>for future technological solutions. 


Problem:  idiom or jargon
Solution: literal


It is <span aui="idiom">raining cats and dogs</span>
We may need to identify this further to identify the needed action - perhaps "idiom:replace"?  Or, identify the type of issue, "text:idiom". 


Problem:  numbers
Solution: numberfree

<span aui="numbers">9 out of 10 </span>
or 
<span aui="data:numbers">9 out of 10 </span>

Probem: advanced vocabulary or terms
Solution: easylang tailored to the user's preferences - Thus there may be different levels of easylang

We need some standard way of identifying difficult vocabulary that is easy for an author to use. Publishers and "professional content authors" may be motivated to learn more well defined terms but the "average" blog, corporate author, or content management system (CMS) user may not.  
If we want to investigate this type of approach further, I will research different terms for vocabulary levels. 

The problem gets more difficult with longer paragraphs and sentences such as the current example for alternative:
<div>
 <span aui-alternative="easylang numberfree vocab1000" class="hidden">
     most people prefer simple text
   </span>
        In studies it was found that only 30% of users prefer long convoluted text
   with obtuse words and lots of numbers,
   with 56% claiming there preferred the simplified text,
   with the remainder unsure or stated it depends on the context.
</div>
I’m still considering how an author would identify this type or paragraph without having to identify each small portion such as numbers, advance vocabulary, idioms, etc. 

Becky

Received on Monday, 21 May 2018 15:43:02 UTC