Re: Proposal: Canvas accessibility and a media querries approach for alternative content (Action Item 6 in the HTML Accessibility Task Force)

On Wed, 20 Jan 2010, David Singer wrote:
> On Jan 20, 2010, at 7:39 , Ian Hickson wrote:
> > 
> >> The intent is to include the vocabulary in CSS to form a media query 
> >> in harmony with HTML 5 to choose the best content for the user.
> > 
> > Let the user choose what is best for them. You can't know if I prefer 
> > an E-book reader or a high-contrast option. Which I prefer can change 
> > from minute to minute.
> 
> You're right, but I think in this case (and the multimedia accessibility 
> case) the page/UA can get it right initially and by default most of the 
> time.  We can do better than having the user have to find and press 
> 'turn on the captions' on every video they see, for example.  I agree 
> that auto-config in response to preference is NOT a substitute for 
> offering the run-time set of choices all the time, for cases when the 
> auto is not, in fact, what I needed.

Sure, but for canvas this is a solved problem. The author just sets a 
cookie that represents what the user last used, and brings that up by 
default. Web apps do it all the time already in other contexts.


> The backwards-compatibilty problem of the media queries shouldn't be so 
> bad for video and audio, of course, as they are new...

The way media queries are used with video makes sense. It's the way they 
are proposed to be used with <canvas> that doesn't, IMHO. <canvas> is 
intrinsicly a scripted feature; for <canvas> it would make more sense to 
have an API that exposed the media queries rather than a declarative 
system that allowed multiple (possibly very similar) DOMs to be selected.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Wednesday, 20 January 2010 08:13:22 UTC