RE: Firing media events early for throttled downloads

Robert O'Callahan wrote:
>
> ATs should just be able to prevent autoplay, or delay
> it, or whatever. In fact in Firefox we have a hidden
> pref to disable autoplay. There is no need to disrecommend
> use of autoplay by authors.

OK, so now I am very confused. Are you suggesting then that for all users 
who do not use Adaptive Technology should just suck it in and settle for 
author whims re: auto-start.  Or spend time and effort hunting down a 
"hidden pref" to disable this cruft? (I do not use AT, yet would love to be 
able to set this to "off" - or is it only a feature available to Persons 
with disabilities {PWD}?)

In the extremely contentious HTML5 Design Principles 
[http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-html-design-principles-20071126/], they state 
that the end user is supreme ("3.2. Priority of Constituencies: In case of 
conflict, consider users over authors over implementors over specifiers over 
theoretical purity."), and the general thrust moving forward is that the 
authors don't want to do stuff exclusively for one user-group (PWD) but 
rather: "Features should be designed for universal access.", yet now you are 
saying that this should be relegated to AT.

FAIL

There is plenty of reason to 'disrecommend' auto-start:

* "author proposes, user disposes" (W4A 2006 Keynote Address)
 www.w4a.info/2006/presentations/09-Rhys-Lewis/09-Rhys-Lewis.html

* WCAG2 states: "3.2.5 Change on Request: Changes of context are initiated 
only by user request or a mechanism is available to turn off such changes." 
(No mention of AT here BTW) in conjunction with: "2.2.1 Timing Adjustable: 
For each time limit that is set by the content, at least one of the 
following is true: (Level A) Turn off: The user is allowed to turn off the 
time limit before encountering it;" Note: This success criterion helps 
ensure that users can complete tasks without unexpected changes in content 
or context that are a result of a time limit. (JF notes that auto-start has 
no "before" state)
 http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20

* Section 508 states: "Applications shall not disrupt or disable activated 
features of other products that are identified as accessibility features, 
where those features are developed and documented according to industry 
standards." (In other words, if a user is already using their 
audio-card/application to run, say a screen reader, then the page content 
should not interfere with that previously launched application)
 http://section508.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Content&ID=12#Software

* #10. If you use music on your site make sure the user can stop it, and it 
BETTER NOT start on page load without the user requesting it. Same goes for 
video with audio (*cough ESPN *cough), many web users surf from work and don’t 
enjoy their speakers lighting up with your horrible and intrusive taste in 
music while their boss roams the halls looking for some ass to bust.
 http://www.josiahcole.com/2007/02/14/a-webmasters-19-commandments/

Conversely, can you point to any resource that demonstrates reasons why we 
should recommend using auto-start?

JF

Received on Saturday, 6 June 2009 18:21:03 UTC