[Bug 13621] New: Allow user agents flexibility to meet user needs

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=13621

           Summary: Allow user agents flexibility to meet user needs
           Product: HTML WG
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Keywords: a11y, a11ytf
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: HTML5 spec (editor: Ian Hickson)
        AssignedTo: ian@hixie.ch
        ReportedBy: gcl-0039@access-research.org
         QAContact: public-html-bugzilla@w3.org
                CC: mike@w3.org, public-html-wg-issue-tracking@w3.org,
                    public-html@w3.org, public-html-a11y@w3.org


Giving the user control over their experience, allowing them to interact in
ways that work for them, is a fundamental principle of accessible design.

There are places where the HTML5 spec is overly restrictive at to exactly how
user agents must present content and handle user interactions. Sometimes such
restrictions are necessary, and in many other places the spec acknowledges that
user agent behavior may vary to adapt to its nature, platform, or user needs.
However, in some places the user agent is not given this flexibility, possibly
by simple oversight. If these are not corrected, user agents would be unable to
fully accommodate some users without becoming technically noncompliant. 

This is a broad issue and subsidiary bugs may be entered for specific
instances.

Use case: Nadia is blind and using a web browser with a screen reader. The
document contains a menu structure created with the HTML5 menu element, and it
includes some very long menus with many groups of menu items separated by
horizontal rules into various groups or sections. As Nadia uses the down arrow
key to navigate through the menu items, she has to pause for each one to be
read to her, so traversing a long menu takes a long time and a lot of effort.
She would prefer to have the menu presented to her in hierarchical fashion that
uses progressive disclosure, so she could navigate through the short list of
sections, and then through the short list of commands in the desired section,
rather than through one long list of items.

Use case: Aidan is the opposite of Nadia. He uses an alternative input system
and input is difficult for him, so he wants to reduce the number of actions he
has to take. Therefore he prefers to see all the options visible at once so
that he can choose one directly, rather than having to use mechanisms involving
progressive disclosure. (He has even invested in a large, high-resolution
monitor to support this work style.) Rather than choosing a sub-menu and then
items from them, he'd rather have all the sub-menus and their items displayed
together. Unfortunately, the HTML5 specification explicitly states that the
menu element with a label must be presented as a sub-menu rather than displayed
inline.

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Received on Wednesday, 3 August 2011 19:32:07 UTC