Re: Proposed Note for checkpoint 1.1 on device-independent input

The governing principle here is comparable to the role Text-to-Speech plays
for display.

Device independence can in principle be provided through support of a
software interface because keyboard emulation is readily available to those
who need it, interfaced to all kinds of actual devices.

This is parallel to the fact that audio-out can be supported by making
TTS-compatible text available through a software interface, because
text-to-speech is readily available.

Warning: I lack any useful knowledge of the standard interfaces that
keyboard emulators expect.

Al

At 11:59 AM 7/12/99 -0400, Ian Jacobs wrote:
>Hello,
>
>My action item of 7 July [1]:
>
>>   Ian: Propose to the list changes to checkpoint 1.1 in wording
>>        about text input through the mouse.
>>          a) In checkpoint itself
>>          b) In note after checkpoint.
>
>In the 9 July release [0], the same checkpoint is 1.1:
>
>>    1.1 Ensure that all functionalities offered by the user agent interface
>>        are available through all supported input devices.
>
>The issue (as Harvey pointed out [2]): For conformance, do user
>agents have to allow users to enter text with the mouse?
>
>I think that users should be able to enter text with the mouse
>(whether for accessibility reasons or for internationalization reasons)
>but it may not be the UA's job to provide this functionality.
>
>If the UA operates on an OS where users can enter 
>text into any piece of software through an
>entry palette, checkpoint 1.1 is satisfied (device
>independence would be "ensured"). 
>
>Hence, I would like to propose a Note to follow the checkpoint:
>
>   Note. User agents should make use of operating system-level
>         input and output mechanisms such as text entry palettes.
>
>I don't have any suggestions right now on what to say for
>UAs that operate on systems without os-level entry palettes.
>Do many users require being able to enter text with a mouse
>for accessibility reasons?
>
> - Ian
> 
>[0]
>http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/WAI-USERAGENT-19990709/#gl-device-independence
>[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ua/1999JulSep/0003.html
>[2] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ua/1999AprJun/0204.html
>
>-- 
>Ian Jacobs (jacobs@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
>Tel/Fax:                     +1 212 684-1814
>

Received on Monday, 12 July 1999 17:25:18 UTC