RE: Aural extensions

Gregory,
Can you tell me what's wrong with the conversation?  Email me privately.

Charles Oppermann
Active Accessibility, Microsoft Corporation
mailto:chuckop@microsoft.com http://microsoft.com/enable
"A computer on every desk and in every home, usable by everyone!"

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	gregory j. rosmaita [SMTP:oedipus@hicom.net]
> Sent:	Wednesday, October 22, 1997 6:31 PM
> To:	Al Gilman
> Cc:	w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> Subject:	Re: Aural extensions
> 
> raloha, al et. al.!
> 
> how sadly ironic that the MS proposal should degrade so ungracefully
> when
> rendered by lynx or any other text-based browser...  i can get
> realaudio
> to stream through my desktop when browsing with lynx32, yet i can't
> get
> consistently comprehensible aural output from a document automatically
> converted into hypertext by Word97...
> 
> if MS is to convince me that they are serious about accessibility and
> standards, then they will either bundle an HTML parser/validator with
> their HTML generators, or at the very least, take the time to
> _validate_
> the output of their automatic conversion utilities before posting,
> mounting, or circulating any hypertext documents generated by such
> utilities... checked against
> 
> 	http://www.webtechs.com/html-val-svc
> 
> for compliance with HTML 3.2 the MS proposal contained 199 errors...
> 
> and, while--for the most part--the actual body of the document was
> comprehensible, the front-matter most decidedly is not--save for those
> fortunate few who have access to a cell-by-cell capable browser...  in
> particular, anyone listening to the proposal as rendered by lynx 2.5
> and greater, would have heard the table-ized content as:
> 
> Version Author Date Change 0.9 Or Ben-Natan 6/6/97 Initial version
> 
> of course, this is the root of the problem which we are attempting to
> solve through our participation in the WAI and its working groups...
> but what of the user who will not reap the benefits of our work?
> those
> who, for whatever reason, physical and/or financial, have no choice
> but to 
> use antiquated equipment and/or access the web via a shell account
> that
> features an ancient version of lynx which doesn't even support lynx's
> de-table-ization kludge?  while it is the purpose of this list to look
> 
> forward, we must not forget that true accessibility looks as far 
> backwards as it does forward...
> 
> what am i talking about?  perhaps a listen to/look at/feel of
> 
> 	http://www.njin.net/caldwell/vicug/iaap/table_32.html
> 
> will make my point more forcefully...  and, should Microsoft (and
> its rivals in the GUI-based browser market) consider implementing an
> Aural
> Accessibility Protocol/Patch, such as that outlined at:
> 
> 	http://www.njin.net/caldwell/vicug/iaap/
> 
> which would (amongst other things) allow the user to de-table-ize
> table-ized information, backwards-compatible access is extremely
> realizable...
> 
> by way of conclusion, i should stress that it is not my intention to
> scapegoat Microsoft on this issue--invalid HTML is endemic to the
> output of HTML authoring/conversion programs/utilities...  and, while
> SoftQuad has taken steps to remedy this with the release of HoTMetaL
> 4.0,
> HTML validation within authoring/conversion programs is still in its
> infancy...  this, coupled with the ever-increasing popularity and
> ubiquity of such authoring/conversion applications and utilities,
> presents
> one of the most serious threats to an accessible internet...
> 
> gregory.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
> oedipus@hicom.net
>         	http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/index.html
> 	                                                gregory@afb.org
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>

Received on Friday, 24 October 1997 03:12:49 UTC