Re: TV Remote Control Comments from APA

Thanks, Chris, for your very prompt and positive response. Please don't
hesitate to let us know if we can assist going forward. We believe HTML
5 accessibility is a powerful opportunity especially in media, so we're
dedicated to do what we can to see support fully implemented.

And, yes, we did eventually grok that this API wasn't exactly what most
of us thought of when we heard "TV Remote Control" I guess our first
clue was the lack of audio volume up and down! <grin>

Janina

Chris Needham writes:
> Dear Janina,
> 
> Many thanks for your review feedback, this is very welcome.
> 
> I should clarify that despite the name, the purpose of the TV Control API is not really to provide remote control functionality to a second screen.
> 
> Instead the goal is to provide an integration with HTMLMediaElement that allows the display of broadcast or IPTV delivered audio and video media. Where this includes alternative media such as audio description or captioning, our aim is to make this available through the existing support provided by HTMLMediaElement.
> 
> I have added each of your points to our GitHub issue tracker for follow-up in the Working Group:
> 
> Alternative media support
> https://github.com/w3c/tvcontrol-api/issues/54
> 
> Alternative media on second screen devices
> https://github.com/w3c/tvcontrol-api/issues/55
> 
> Legal requirements for accessibility
> https://github.com/w3c/tvcontrol-api/issues/56
> 
> Reference the Media Accessibility User Requirements (MAUR)
> https://github.com/w3c/tvcontrol-api/issues/57
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Chris (Chair, TV Control Working Group)
> ________________________________________
> From: Janina Sajka [janina@rednote.net]
> Sent: 22 March 2017 14:53
> To: public-tvcontrol@w3.org
> Cc: W3C WAI Accessible Platform Architectures
> Subject: TV Remote Control Comments from APA
> 
> Colleagues:
> 
> The Accessible Platform Architectures (APA) Working Group makes the
> following comments on the draft TV Control API specification at:
> 
> https://www.w3.org/tr/tvcontrol-api/
> 
> Our review and Working Group Decision in support of these comments is
> logged at:
> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-apa/2017Mar/0018.html
> 
> We appreciate that an API for TV remote control could be utilized for
> enabling accessible alternative Web applications to provide radio and TV
> services to users with disabilities who may find it difficult or
> impossible to operate any user interface supplied with a particular
> browser or hardware device. This is an inherent accessibility strength
> for any API that provides for sufficient feature support. Regretably, we
> believe the current TV Remote Control API as currently defined lacks
> required accessibility feature support.
> 
> *       alternative media support
> 
> We would draw your attention to the multiple alternative media formats
> that are used by persons with disabilities as set forth in our W3C Note
> publication: "Media Accessibility User Requirements (MAUR)" available
> at:
> 
> http://www.w3.org/TR/media-accessibility-reqs
> 
> Please note that this document was developed in order to inform the
> development of the HTML 5.0 specification itself. As a result of this
> note, HTML provides sufficient feature support to support accessibility
> in HTML's video and audio elements.
> 
> Our reading of the Tv Control API draft finds no way for users to learn
> of the presence of any MAUR identified alternative media with any
> particular TV content, nor any means to request display of alternative
> content. This is a fundamental accessibility requirement on TV Controls
> and we believe it must be factored into this specification.
> 
> *       Alternative Media on Second Screen Devices
> 
> APA's predecessor Working Group, Protocols and Formats WG also provided
> use cases and requirements to the Second Screen Working Group on how
> alternative media might be directed to second screen devices. We believe
> support for directing alternative video, audio, and/or text to secondary
> devices, as described in the MAUR,  is also a fundamental accessibility
> requirement on TV Controls and should be supported in this API.
> 
> *       Legal Requirements
> 
> The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the U.S. has explicit
> legally mandated regulations setting forth some strict requirements on
> how certain alternative media are to be exposed to consumers. These
> regulations also require accessible program guides.
> 
> We believe that developers should be flagged most especially on the requirement that
> captioning must be enableable by top level controls. These FCC
> requirements implement provisions of a U.S. law known as the
> "Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act" as
> explained by the FCC at:
> 
> https://www.fcc.gov/general/twenty-first-century-communications-and-video-accessibility-act-0#block-menu-block-4
> 
> The FCC's regulations pertinent to this specification were published in
> December 2016 in the document: "Accessibility Requirements for
> Television and Set-Top Box Controls, Menus, and Program Guides"
> available at:
> 
> PDF:            https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-16-1416A1.pdf
> MS-Word: https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-16-1416A1.docx
> 
> Also relevant is the document "Display of Captioning on Equipment Used
> to View Video Programming" available at:
> 
> https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/closed-captioning-display-requirements-equipment#block-menu-block-4
> 
> Additionally, we would request that your API reference the MAUR in your
> appendices in order to assist developers in meeting both their moral and
> legal requirements in support of accessibility.
> 
> --
> 
> Janina Sajka,   Phone:  +1.443.300.2200
>                         sip:janina@asterisk.rednote.net
>                 Email:  janina@rednote.net
> 
> Linux Foundation Fellow
> Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:       http://a11y.org
> 
> The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
> Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures        http://www.w3.org/wai/apa
> 
> 
> --
> 
> Janina Sajka,   Phone:  +1.443.300.2200
>                         sip:janina@asterisk.rednote.net
>                 Email:  janina@rednote.net
> 
> Linux Foundation Fellow
> Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:       http://a11y.org
> 
> The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
> Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures        http://www.w3.org/wai/apa
> 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 

Janina Sajka,	Phone:	+1.443.300.2200
			sip:janina@asterisk.rednote.net
		Email:	janina@rednote.net

Linux Foundation Fellow
Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:	http://a11y.org

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures	http://www.w3.org/wai/apa

Received on Tuesday, 28 March 2017 14:35:22 UTC