Re: Comments on SVG Accessibility Mappings -- Language and Scope

Hi Amelia,

I have made a change in the git repository for this - not the exact wording
you suggested but it is there.

Understand that by going back to SVG 1.1. This mapping spec. could get
quite *ugly* - especially given the fact that very little was addressed in
terms of accessibility in earlier versions of SVG. We had not planned to go
back and support earlier versions of SVG. I am concerned we will be opening
up Pandora's box. For example, SVG 1.1 had no keyboard support, no focus
methods, etc. Some elements in SVG2 could go such as those related to
animation. Now we will be faced with supporting those features as they
start to leave browsers.

What I am saying as this all sounds great on the surface but it will create
problems. This is one example.

Rich


Rich Schwerdtfeger



From:	Amelia Bellamy-Royds <amelia.bellamy.royds@gmail.com>
To:	Richard Schwerdtfeger/Austin/IBM@IBMUS
Cc:	public-svg-a11y@w3.org
Date:	01/26/2015 11:59 AM
Subject:	Re: Comments on SVG Accessibility Mappings -- Language and
            Scope



Thanks for the follow-up Richard.

One added complication I discovered, relating to the accessible
name/description computation.   SVG 2 will allow multiple `<title>` and
`<desc>` elements in different languages.  The accessibility computations
should accommodate this.

SVG 2 draft section:
https://svgwg.org/svg2-draft/struct.html#DescriptionAndTitleElements

<aside>
SVG 1.1 does not have an explicit mechanism for doing this.  For visible
text there is the `systemLanguage` attribute that can be used to toggle
individual element's display, but for `<title>` only the first child was
ever supposed to be used, without allowance for language attributes (not
sure how many user agents enforce the first-child rule, or whether any paid
attention to `systemLanguage` on `<title>` elements).
</aside>

Since the approach of the SVG working group is that SVG won't have strict
versioning, and new SVG features should be backwards-compatible, I don't
think the SVG Accessibility doc should have separate rules for SVG 2 vs SVG
1.1.  However, since the SVG 2 text hasn't been finalized, we don't want to
explicitly repeat rules that might become outdated.

Instead, perhaps include a more general statement that, if there are more
than one `<title>` or `<desc>` elements, the accessible name/description
computations will use choose one according to the rules defined in the SVG
specifications.  For the working drafts, you could add an Editor's Note
pointing to both the SVG 1.1 section and the draft SVG 2 section.

AmeliaBR