- From: Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis <bhawkeslewis@googlemail.com>
- Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2012 07:33:59 +0000
- To: Steve Faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com>
- Cc: "Tab Atkins Jr." <jackalmage@gmail.com>, Mark Watson <watsonm@netflix.com>, Glenn Adams <glenn@skynav.com>, Charles Pritchard <chuck@jumis.com>, David Dorwin <ddorwin@google.com>, Henri Sivonen <hsivonen@iki.fi>, "<public-html@w3.org>" <public-html@w3.org>
On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 10:23 AM, Steve Faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com> wrote: > Removing the flash dependency would result in native capabilities for > interacting with media built in to the browser. > For example, in Firefox both the audio and video elements default controls > can be operated using the keyboard. > The controls while not represented in the DOM are represented in the > accessibility tree so that assistive technology can provide access to users > This is not the case with Flash on non windows platfroms.. [snip] > Note: this is not an argument for or against CDM's, it's an argument for > providing use of native HTML5 video and audio over embedded inaccessible > functionality. We are providing that through the <video> element and a Fullscreen API. The sort of DRM-dependent video sites we're talking about typically do not practice progressive enhancement (relying on JS being enabled) and build their own chrome to control, brand, and monetise the user experience, so I suspect users will not benefit from the accessibility of the default controls for their content. Out of YouTube, Hulu, BBC IPlayer, Daily Motion, MetaCafe, and Yahoo! Screen only in MetaCafe and Yahoo! Screen can you even play videos with JS off, and MetaCafe's thumbnails are not loaded. They all build their own chrome and it's not clear they'd be happy to surface videos without it. (For example, how would they play an ad before the video…). Such sites could provide the accessibility controls you describe by using Flash as a non-interactive canvas, including in fullscreen as browsers adopt: http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/fullscreen/raw-file/tip/Overview.html The DRM proposal under discussion won't even promote progressive enhancement, since it introduces a dependency on a JS API. In summary, I'm not convinced the DRM proposal will translate into significant accessibility improvements. I'd prefer browsers put their efforts into fullscreen support. -- Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis
Received on Friday, 16 March 2012 07:34:48 UTC