- From: Richard Schwerdtfeger <schwer@us.ibm.com>
- Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2010 18:50:02 -0500
- To: David Singer <singer@apple.com>
- Cc: public-canvas-api@w3.org, public-canvas-api-request@w3.org
- Message-ID: <OFF81ED269.CB713A68-ON862577B2.0081D2E5-862577B2.0082ECEA@us.ibm.com>
David, I could not have stated that any better. Frank Olivier, Charles Pritchard, and I have been looking how to stretch canvas to help support accessibility. We have already discovered there is a way to monitor and set carets/selections in contenteditable areas in the backing store. In fact, Google appears to have a cross browser library to do it. We just don't want to see HTML 5 go out the door and find we have shut the door on people as we were unable to look ahead. Rich Rich Schwerdtfeger CTO Accessibility Software Group From: David Singer <singer@apple.com> To: public-canvas-api@w3.org Date: 10/04/2010 06:22 PM Subject: Re: html5 editor responds to Canvas accessibility related bugs Sent by: public-canvas-api-request@w3.org I wonder if there are some conclusion jumps being made here, or at least extreme positions (these are both upcoming olympic sports, by the way). I feel that one of the important aspects of a good 'tool' is that it can be used effectively in *unexpected* ways. A good design has 'depth' and can be a platform for creativity. So, while it might be inappropriate to write a text editor in canvas (in that, there are better ways to do it that work better and have fewer restrictions), we could take the attempt to do it as a example 'stretch' application and see what that tells as about the tool we have in hand (i.e. canvas). The lesson is not 'writing text editors in canvas is the right thing to do' but that 'canvas might be weak in its accessibility support'. This backs into another one; we should be careful letting a failure of imagination on our part dictate what is possible on other people's part. If we cannot imagine writing something that needs 'deep' accessibility in canvas, should we therefore make it difficult or impossible to make such applications accessible? We need to be pretty sure of ourselves to say 'no', unless the provision makes the design complex, unworkable, unlikely to be adopted, a lot of (assumed to be pointless) specification work, and so on. Can we make it possible to write interesting interactive accessible applications in canvas, without doing harm to the ourselves or the specification? If so, we have broadened the scope for invention. David Singer Multimedia and Software Standards, Apple Inc.
Attachments
- image/gif attachment: graycol.gif
Received on Monday, 4 October 2010 23:50:39 UTC