Re: Does the APA WG look at CSS accessibility issues? If so, css-highlight-api is a good one to look at

Hi All,

Yes. As a member of APA, I can confirm that we have (had?) specific CSS
expertise in the group, as well as a relatively good rapport with the CSS
WG. I'm not sure (and suspect no) whether this specific topic has come up
(I don't recall hearing anything, but...)

I suspect adding this to our next agenda would be a Good Thing (TM).

JF

On Fri, Nov 12, 2021 at 12:01 PM David Fazio <dfazio@helixopp.com> wrote:

> This seems like a very good APA issue to me. Has particular COGA relevance
> as well.
>
> This message was Sent from my iPhone. Please excuse any typographic
> errors.
>
> On Nov 12, 2021, at 11:57 AM, David Fazio <dfazio@helixopp.com> wrote:
>
>  APA is currently right now. Not sure about this particular issue though
>
> This message was Sent from my iPhone. Please excuse any typographic
> errors.
>
> On Nov 12, 2021, at 11:56 AM, Mary Jo Mueller <maryjom@us.ibm.com> wrote:
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> During TPAC I attended a session on CSS accessibility topics to gather
> information about current challenges where one of the issues struck a chord
> with me.
>
> Has the APA WG been looking at CSS accessibility and is the group aware of
> the conversation on the CSS highlight API? See *Issue 6498 on how the CSS
> highlight API is exposed to the accessibility tree*
> <https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/6498>(
> https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/6498). I'm concerned that
> they're only thinking about attaching color names to highlights or limited
> meanings (find or spelling and grammar only), where there is the
> opportunity to associate any meaningful name or label which the author
> could define.
>
> An example: In data analysis, highlights are used to indicate any number
> of things - errors, outliers, or like the example in my comment in the
> issue: user sentiments. Highlights are also used in data analysis for
> medical literature to highligh medical conditions or symptom keywords.
>
> I added a comment to that effect, but from rest of the conversation they
> are assuming that "accessibility tools" as they call them are way more
> sophisticated than they are. That using an accessibility tool like a screen
> reader you can assign other text to the color name. I don't quite know how
> that could be done, as screen readers simply parse and speak what they
> discover in the DOM.
>
> I have to admit, I am a little out of my technology expertise with CSS. I
> don't know how much CSS information is transposed into the DOM for a screen
> reader to access but it seems that if it is possible, it is a good
> opportunity to make a wide range of author-defined highlights accessible to
> screen reader users.
>
> Do you know if there are accessibility experts in APA that have more CSS
> knowledge who can chime in on the conversation?
>
> Best regards,
>
> Mary Jo
> _____________________________________________
> *Mary Jo Mueller*
> Accessibility Standards Program Manager
> IBM Accessibility
>
> "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and
> become more, you are a leader." *~John Quincy Adams*
>
>

-- 
*John Foliot* |
Senior Industry Specialist, Digital Accessibility |
W3C Accessibility Standards Contributor |

"I made this so long because I did not have time to make it shorter." -
Pascal "links go places, buttons do things"