Canvas 3D: WebGL Spec Final Draft

Dear accessibility task force and canvas sub-team,

I'd like to draw your attention to the final draft of the WebGL 
specification [1] that addresses the 3D context of the canvas element.

At least the same accessibility issues apply in a 3D context as in a 2D 
context: providing a shadow DOM, exposure to AT, keyboard access, 
setting focus, showing a focus ring and the caret position. I would like 
to suggest that the canvas sub-team gets in contact with the editors at 
the Khronos group to share their findings, thus enabling better 
accessibility in a 3D context. I would also suggest that the W3C 
officially gets involved in the development of that spec.

At TPAC I pointed out that 3D possibly requires further features for 
accessibility:

- In a gaming context, audio cues, earcons, a sound radar, tactile 
feedback, or speech synthesis are important. Also bear in mind the 
issues of hardware acceleration bypassing the CPU and accessibility APIs.

- In a social context (Second Life) the main issues are: lack of alt 
text for user generated content, users need a summary/grouping of 
objects, the ability to filter nearby objects (people/items), and again 
screenreader support.

In particular Eelke Folmer of the Department of Computer Science and 
Engineering at the University of Nevada did some valuable research on 
that topic.

WebGL is arriving strongly this year in browsers, and it would be 
important not to leave any people behind.

Cheers,
   Martin


[1] https://www.khronos.org/registry/webgl/specs/latest/

Received on Tuesday, 8 February 2011 13:58:12 UTC