- From: Gregory J. Rosmaita <oedipus@hicom.net>
- Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 04:02:22 +0100
- To: "T.V Raman" <raman@google.com>
- Cc: public-html@w3.org, public-xhtml2@w3.org, www-svg@w3.org, wai-xtech@w3.org
aloha, raman! 1) ARIA 1.0 is merely the beginning -- it is not a panacea, but a triage effort to keep those dependent upon third-party assisstive software from falling even further behind the developmental curve of web 2.0 applications... ARIA has 2 tracks: a) a solution to today's problems (inaccessible widgets) today b) it provides a framework for maturation and extensibility (due, in no small part to its being in sync with XHTML Roles Module (with which, i know, you are intimately acquainted) 2) ARIA 1.0 is an intensive triage effort, that not only binds the gaping holes in scripting languages, but which provides a means for annotating and enhancing all users' experience of specialized knowledge domain markup languages -- politeness levels are as applicable to any current ML as they are to any future ML; and there will always be a need for them in order to communicate with out-of-the-box assisstive technologies or plug-ins -- the kind most commonly found in the workplace, at educational institutions, in libraries and other public-access points where a dedicated assisstive technology is either not available or out-of-date and limited in its capacities, which is why i put such high stock in the work that charles chen has performed in not only supplying a self-voicing extension to FireFox, but in supporting ARIA whilst doing so... 3) whether you like it, i like it or not, there is and will remain an outstanding need for ARIA markup to be integratable with the widest variety of markup languages possible -- ARIA is not the "sole" solution, but it is a standardized approach that fills a gap between native support (or lack thereof) for role, state, and property metadata that, in conjunction with an expert handler communicating with either ATK/AT-SPI or IAccessible2 to make a specialized markup language usable by someone using a third-party assisstive hardware and/or software, and the capacity for generic, non-specialized, out-of-the-box assisstive technologies to make such interaction feasible ARIA is framework, not a flagstaff or flogging poll, and it does no one a disservice to point out that it addresses today's problems today, and has the framework in place to address tomorrow's problems... raman, you know as well as i (actually, far better than i) the gap between specification and common usage, and the languages you cited as having built-in accessibility -- whilst specifying means of providing universal access -- are not very widely supported, and not used widely in the education of students who depend upon assisstive technologies or those who attempting to become experts in a given field... this is not the forum in which to debate why this dismal situation persists, (that would be at the bar at TPAC) but it is a practical fact of life online that: A) languages with strong native support for accessibility have VERY weak third party support; and B) if a specification falls in the woods, complete with native accessibility features, and no one is there to feel/see/hear it, can one really claim that accessibility has been achieved? 4) there is a migratory process from generalized content markup languages to specialized content markup languages, and a standard framework for interacting with and exposing the content of specialized markup languages is, and will remain, an intractable problem with multiple partial solutions, rather than a standardized, comprehensive approach to providing full support for specialized content markup which is applicable cross-platform, cross-UA, and cross-AT -- that is a true injustice: access for the select few, rather than the many... accessibility is in the eye, ear, fingertip or whatever is available to an individual user, and ARIA provides the type of support for customization of what is exposed, when, and how; no one has all of the answers, which is why ARIA 1.0 is only the first step, but the first step is the most important step, for without it, one is stuck in a static situation with no relief or recourse... gregory. ------------------------------------------------------------- SELF-EVIDENT, adj. Evident to one's self and to nobody else. -- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary ------------------------------------------------------------- Gregory J. Rosmaita: oedipus@hicom.net Camera Obscura: http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/ Oedipus' Online Complex: http://my.opera.com/oedipus ------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Original Message ----------- From: "T.V Raman" <raman@google.com> To: david.poehlman@handsontechnologeyes.com Cc: raman@google.com, oedipus@hicom.net, ian@hixie.ch, public- html@w3.org, public-xhtml2@w3.org, www-svg@w3.org, wai-xtech@w3.org Sent: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 05:17:50 -0700 Subject: Re: ARIA support in HTML & XML-based MLs: a call for consensus > So how exactly do you expect ARIA to help with the following, > each of which had accessibility support built in from the ground > up -- but were enumerated by Gregory in his message? I can only > think in terms of concrete examples, and I get the sense that > ARIA as a nonocker is being turned into a generic flag to wave > around --- or a flagstaff to hit people on the head with --- > which would do it and everyone a serious injustice. > > Examples from Gregory's message: > > MathML ... > XForms (my own addition of course) > > -- > Best Regards, > --raman > > Title: Research Scientist > Email: raman@google.com > WWW: http://emacspeak.sf.net/raman/ > Google: tv+raman > GTalk: raman@google.com, tv.raman.tv@gmail.com > PGP: http://emacspeak.sf.net/raman/raman-almaden.asc ------- End of Original Message -------
Received on Wednesday, 24 October 2007 03:02:36 UTC