SVG accessibility - title, description and what to do with it

Loretta Guarino Reid asked me the following:

Do you have a clear model for the way an SVG user agent should interact with
assistive technology with respect to Title and Description? If I were
linearizing an SVG document, should the linearized version include all titles
and/or descriptions? Should it stop descending the hierarchy as soon as it
encounters a description? Are descriptions attached to nodes of a complex
graphic each intended to be a stand-alone replacement for the attached node?
Should they assume the context of encompassing descriptions?

I thought this would be a good place to discuss it. Some thoughts:

I think there ought to be some default rendering level for a linear
presentation - title and desc that are children of the SVG, or grandchildren.
Maybe title of elements that are descendants of those. Beyond that I think it
should be a navigable thing - increase detail, for example. Alternatively,
build it as nested content, and rely on people having a decent browser to
help them navigate at the right level of detail.

The Batik guys have got tooltips available for titles, and I am not sure what
Amaya does for its text rendering but will test something in it.

What do folks think?

Chaals

-- 
Charles McCathieNevile    http://www.w3.org/People/Charles  phone: +61 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative     http://www.w3.org/WAI    fax: +1 617 258 5999
Location: 21 Mitchell street FOOTSCRAY Vic 3011, Australia
(or W3C INRIA, Route des Lucioles, BP 93, 06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France)

Received on Thursday, 6 September 2001 23:17:09 UTC