[Access Module] accessibility check of SVG WG request for @order

aloha!

in reference to the Access Module's last call draft:

http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-xhtml-access-20080526

which the XHTML2 WG is set to transition to CR, there has been discussion 
of the SVG WG's formal comments, which are logged at: 

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-html-editor/2008JulSep/0002.html

and which were discussed during last week's XHTML2 telecon:

http://www.w3.org/2008/07/16-xhtml-minutes.html#item02

i have been tasked by the XHTML2 WG to "bring up SVG's proposal for 
attribute 'order' to ascertain if affects accessibility qua 
accessibility"

here follows the SVG WG's request for PF review:

<q 
cite="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-html-
editor/2008JulSep/0002.html">

Order of @targetrole and @targetid Values:

It doesn't seem intuitive that the targetrole and targetid lists are 
unordered, but rely solely on document order.  For SVG in particular, 
document order is of a different nature than in XHTML; it determines 
the stacking order, not the sequential order.  We do understand that 
both unordered and ordered lists have use cases; therefore, we suggest 
that you introduce a way for the author to control the 'tabbing' order.

One way to accomplish this is to add an additional, optional attribute, 
such as:

   attribute 'order' = "document* | list"

where "list" sets the tabbing order to a strict sequence determined by 
the order of the values in targetrole and targetid.
</q>

(NOTE: in the above quote, the value "document" is the default value 
for the proposed 'order' attribute)

does this proposal raise any red, yellow or other-colored flags?  it seems
to me (as an individual) a reasonable and even desireable attribute, 
inherently increasing the accessibility of SVG, but what do others in the 
WAI think?

gregory.
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Gregory J. Rosmaita, oedipus@hicom.net
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Received on Monday, 21 July 2008 17:43:11 UTC