comments on Research Report on Mobile Web Accessibility

Greetings WAI Research and Development Group:

I thought I'd provide comments on:

Research Report on Mobile Web Accessibility
http://www.w3.org/WAI/RD/2012/mobile/note/ED-mobile-20130326

All comments are for editors' discretion; I don't need responses to 
any of the items I'll mention.

Numbering is for tracking, rather than prioritization. There are 23 items.

1. I was surprised not to see ATAG mentioned in the abstract. 
Authoring on mobile platforms is becoming more and more common.

2.  I assume that the copyright date will be changed from 2012 to 
2013 even though I do understand that the symposium itself took place in 2012.

3.  I assume that all the places where [link] url is mentioned will 
be filled in, along with day, month, and year denotations, before 
this goes out for further public comment.

4.  See note in brackets:
Mobile devices are changing the way people access the Web[add comma] 
and it is no longer safe to say that a specific device or set of 
devices will be used to access

5.  See notes in brackets:
We scope [change to define, for purposes of this document) mobile 
devices as those that conventionally [add are] carried by the user 
and act as that users personal computation and connection resource.

6. Bracketed notes:
In this case[add ,] screen size[del ,] and computational resources 
will vary [add and will include] [del including] support for 
gestures, voice commands, and a variety of gadgets.

Note that I'm not going to try to catch every grammar/punctuation 
issue going forward, but I will continue to use brackets.

7.  Indeed, we note that directions for standards have already [add 
been] published in this space including the "

8\.  There are many areas where further research needs to be 
conducted to understand [del what is] the scale of accessibility 
issues on the mobile Web for people with disabilities.

9. While these new interaction forms are gaining popularity[add ,] 
more traditional forms of interaction, such as keyboard input, 
continue to be used in mobile device

10. We can see that this novel mix [add of] interaction paradigms 
create a very specific set of problems and opportunities, and imply 
that further research is needed to understand the challenges 
associated with the mobile Web

11.  there is not much research that [investigate -- change to 
investigates] the difficulties experienced by disabled mobile Web users (

12. What about the new OS being developed for mobile by Mozilla? Is 
it worth mentioning somewhere, even though it may have become 
publicly visible after this symposium took place?

13.  Two suggestions in:
MWBP mainly provides techniques that can be used to design user 
friendly Web pages on mobile devices[add ,] and WCAG includes 
guidelines for developing user friendly mobile pages 
(<http://www.w3.org/WAI/RD/2012/mobile/note/ED-mobile-20130326#XHarperYesilada-2008>Harper 
and Yesilada 2008). [There are also some work that look at the 
overlaps -- change to something like Some work looks at the overlaps] 
and relationships between WCAG and MWBP

14. Two suggestions:
However, none of these tools particularly focus on testing 
accessibility of [add the] mobile Web for disabled users. Mobile Web 
accessibility evaluation is also an area [that change to where] 
further research needs to be conducted.


15. Several:
Mobile devices such as the iPhone 5 and iPad, Google Nexus, 
BlackBerry Z10 and PlayBook, Nokia Lumia and so on, are usually quite 
small and[add ,] as discussed above[add ,] they are typically used in 
constrained environments. Traditional forms of interaction[add ,] 
such as keyboard or mouse interaction[del ,] on mobile devices[add ,] 
sometimes does not exist[add ,] or it is almost impossible to use 
them 
(<http://www.w3.org/WAI/RD/2012/mobile/note/ED-mobile-20130326#Xriam:bc02>Butts 
and Cockburn 2002).

16. Therefore, new interaction forms [change are to have] emerged on 
mobile devices. Some of these techniques and methods have [add been] 
developed for improving accessibility for people with disabilities on 
Desktop[add ,] and they are migrated to mobile devices.

17. Recently, some work has also been proposed that combines audio 
and vibration to allow users [add to] explore graphical information 
on touchscreen interfaces(

18.  Certainly[add ,] our participants have demonstrated that mobile 
keyboard access is both possible and effective. However, we [del 
also] realise that[add ,] while practically possible[add ,] it may be 
necessary to [add offer] a certain amount of guidance and best 
practice regarding keyboard accessibility in the mobile domain. In 
this case[add ,] we feel[del ,] that platform developers need to 
include explicit statements about keyboard interface accessibility 
being part of the platform's intended look-and-feel, and [del for] 
platform developers [del to] [add should] include keyboard interface 
testing tools in their Quality Assurance suites.

19.  Indeed, from a purely marketing perspective[add ,] it is in the 
platform developers best interests to maintain interoperability on 
their platforms.

20. Accessibility[del ,] is one way of maintaining good 
interoperability - because if it is accessible[add ,] then it is also 
more likely to be interoperable and device independent.

21. Our aim should be to address these issues by identifying this 
reciprocity and the ways in which [the mobility -- change to the 
mobile and... or del the so it would be mobility] and accessibility 
can interoperate,developing a harmonised set of guidelines and 
standards to supportit. [Maybe "it" should be changed to the 
relationship.] Note that I think this point is key, but I'm not sure 
it's written as clearly as it might be.

22.  Don't Lag Behind! As an accessibility community[add ,] we must 
always pay attention to new technologies that are developed. As the 
mobile Web community looks ahead to future technologies in 
development for the mobile Web 
("<http://www.w3.org/2011/08/mobile-web-app-state.html>Standards for 
Web Applications on Mobile: August 2011 Current State and Roadmap"), 
we also need to [have closer eye -- change to closely monitor or keep 
a close eye on] on newly developed technologies.

23.   As a research community[add ,] we need to oversee the 
technologies that will be built and need to ensure that accessibility 
is well integrated [del to them].

I hope these comments are helpful.

Jennifer

Received on Monday, 22 April 2013 03:47:43 UTC