Fw: VHA Comments on HTML5 Draft Specification

Charles Pritchard provided this review of the HTML 5 spec.

Charles works with us on canvas accessibility.

Rich Schwerdtfeger
CTO Accessibility Software Group
----- Forwarded by Richard Schwerdtfeger/Austin/IBM on 08/03/2011 12:36 PM
-----

From: Charles Pritchard <chuck@jumis.com>
To: "public-canvas-api@w3.org" <public-canvas-api@w3.org>
Date: 08/02/2011 07:50 PM
Subject: Fwd: VHA Comments on HTML5 Draft Specification
Sent by: public-canvas-api-request@w3.org



Below are some relevant comments relating to visual focus, posted to
public-html-comments.
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-comments/2011Aug/0008.html



-------- Original Message --------
                                                                
        Subject: VHA Comments on HTML5 Draft Specification      
                                                                
    Resent-Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2011 21:17:44 +0000                
                                                                
    Resent-From: public-html-comments@w3.org                    
                                                                
           Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2011 15:18:28 -0500                 
                                                                
           From: Lipner, Mia <Mia.Lipner@va.gov>                
                                                                


<snip>

The Canvas Element
Other than a reference to providing keyboard accessibility in the fallback
content, there is no reference to providing accessibility for users with
various disabilities.  Visual focus for off-screen elements is an issue for
users of screen magnification and low vision users, with no visual keyboard
indication and no tracking of programmatic focus in the magnified area.
This makes “fallback content” appear to be the “text-only alternative” of
this decade.  Until there are strong recommendations for how to make Canvas
content accessible, there is a huge risk of unequal access to interesting
and innovative content.
<snip>

Element level Focus APIs
In this section, people are instructed to use CSS to hide the focus ring if
they “find it unsightly”.  There should be additional information letting
them know that doing so can jeopardize accessibility for some people
including those who can see the screen, but who also rely upon keyboard
accessibility.



(See attached file: VHA html5 spec comments 080211.doc)