Re: Braille is NOT a Sub-Set of Tactile [media types & media groups]

this post has been archived, cleaned and clarified as a wiki 
page on the HTML A11y TF wiki:

http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/HTML/wiki/Tactile_versus_braille

please point potential commentors (your favorite local font 
of braille knowledge) to the wiki page, as it is a cleaner
document than the archived post, which are linked to the 
wiki page in any case...

gregory.
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You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of
focus.                                           -- Mark Twain
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Gregory J. Rosmaita: gregory@linux-foundation.org
   Vice-Chair: Linux Foundation's Open Accessibility Workgroup
http://a11y.org                          http://a11y.org/specs
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---------- Original Message -----------
From: "Gregory J. Rosmaita" <oedipus@hicom.net>
To: public-canvas-api@w3.org, public-html-a11y@w3.org
Sent: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:18:27 +0000
Subject: Braille is NOT a Sub-Set of Tactile [media types & media groups]

> this post is partial fulfilment of HTML Task Force ACTION-7
> 
> http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/HTML/track/actions/7
> 
> entitled: "propose braille media type (as opposed to simply 
> tactile) or sub-type after consulting with Braille-in-DAISY and others"
> 
> this publically archived post will enable me to point pertinent 
> experts to a common starting point; i think the issues 
> enumerated below need more investigation and discussion before 
> they are broached with the CSS working group/Style Activity, gregory.
> 
> BEGIN ANALYSIS
> 
> tactile should be a seperate media type than braille;
> 
> tactile covers such items as thermoformed objects, such as maps; 
> raised line illustrations and other tactile information that 
> require no prior knowledge in order to be successfully 
> interpreted by an indivdual; they are tactile illustrations, not 
> a representation of natural language;
> 
> braille, on the other hand, is a representation of a specific 
> natural language; in order to understand braille, prior 
> knowledge of the national version of braille being rendered (or 
> into which text is being translated);
> 
> braille is a fundamentally different category from tactile, and 
> yet is not equivalent to text, as it is classified by CSS as 
> belonging to the "grid" media group; one might, for example, 
> provide a stylesheet to enable a user to "Emboss This", much as 
> sighted users are served an @print stylesheet when they actvate 
> a "Print This" link
> 
> what is needed in my opinion is a supplemental CSS media type named
> which would belong to the "continuous or paged" media 
> group, both interactive and static
> 
> the problem is that the term "tactile" is currently used by CSS 
> to catagorize media groups by sensory type:
> 
> visual/audio/speech/tactile
> 
> there is precedent in that "audio" and "speech" are treated as 
> discrete concepts, so too should "braille" and "tactile" be 
> treated as the separate concepts they are...  there is great 
> room for flexibility in this realm, as braille stylesheets 
> are -- for the most part, if not all -- only theoretical at 
> this point in time, despite the Braille Stylesheets Preliminary
> Requirements Analysis:
> 
> http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/braillecss.html
> 
> FOR REFERENCE:
> 
> CSS 2.1 defines the following media groups: 
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/CR-CSS2-20090908/media.html#media-groups
> 
>  * continuous or paged. 
>  * visual, audio, speech, or tactile. 
>  * grid (for character grid devices), or bitmap. 
>  * interactive (for devices that allow user interaction), or 
> static (for    those that do not).  * all (includes all media 
> types)
> 
> CSS 2.1 defines the following media types:
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/CR-CSS2-20090908/media.html#media-intro
> 
>  * braille
>  * embossed
>  * handheld
>  * print
>  * projection
>  * screen
>  * speech
>  * tty
>  * tv
------- End of Original Message -------

Received on Wednesday, 20 January 2010 14:04:16 UTC