Re: agenda+ Fwd: Ruby accessibility gap in WCAG and upcoming proposal for WCAG 2.3

Hello Makoto-san,

Please do not worry about missing the meeting. We discussed your proposal for a new success criterion for WCAG 2.3 in the meeting and we agree with your approach. Addison and I will not be in Kobe, unfortunately, but Richard Ishida and Fuqiao Xue will be there from the group. I hope you will be able to connect with them. Please let me know if you require further assistance with this.

Sincerely,

Joel Sahleen

Co-Chair W3C I18n WG.

> On Nov 6, 2025, at 8:30 PM, 村田真 <founder@info-a11y.jp> wrote:
> 
> I stupidly thought that the meeting would be held tonight.  My apologies!
> 
> I will arrive in Kobe on Sunday.  If people would like to speak with me, I will be available.
> 
> Regards,
> Makoto
> 
> 
> 
> 2025年11月5日(水) 8:08 Addison Phillips <addisoni18n@gmail.com <mailto:addisoni18n@gmail.com>>:
>> Thank you, Makoto-san. Adding to our agenda.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -------- Forwarded Message --------
>> Subject: Ruby accessibility gap in WCAG and upcoming proposal for WCAG 2.3
>> Resent-Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2025 23:06:30 +0000
>> Resent-From:  public-i18n-core@w3.org <mailto:public-i18n-core@w3.org>
>> Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2025 07:15:43 +0900
>> From: 村田真 <founder@info-a11y.jp> <mailto:founder@info-a11y.jp>
>> To: Internationalization Working Group <public-i18n-core@w3.org> <mailto:public-i18n-core@w3.org>
>> 
>> Dear I18N WG colleagues,
>> 
>> In yesterday’s AG WG call, I realized something that I had not fully appreciated before: PDF documents are fully within scope for WCAG.  Given that, I want to raise an issue that is both technical and architectural, and is highly relevant to our group’s charter.
>> 
>> As you know, Japanese, Chinese, and some other writing systems require ruby annotations to convey reading information that is essential for comprehension.
>> However, WCAG currently includes no success criterion that ensures that the relationship between base text and ruby annotations is preserved.
>> 
>> In HTML, this relationship is generally preserved through the ruby markup model.  But in PDF, ruby is often represented as a separate line of text, resulting in a complete loss of semantic association, making the document effectively unreadable for users relying on assistive technologies.
>> 
>> Meanwhile, ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0) defines a correct ruby annotation structure, and PDF/UA includes guidance aligned with it.  I l learned from somebody in Adobe that their implementations fully support such correct structures..  So the missing piece is not technical capability, but rather the absence of a requirement in WCAG that would ensure this association must be preserved.
>> 
>> I intend to propose a new success criterion in WCAG 2.3 requiring that content preserve the explicit parent–ruby relationship in a way that allows user agents and assistive technologies to:
>> hide or show ruby,
>> adjust visual presentation (size, spacing, color), and
>> convey the association programmatically for TTS.
>> Before drafting concrete wording, I plan to explain the rationale and show a short example in our call this Friday.
>> After that, I will prepare a proposal text, and I would appreciate the Working Group’s feedback before submitting it to AG WG.
>> 
>> I believe this can be a constructive and important contribution from I18N WG to WCAG 2.3, addressing a longstanding architectural gap.
>> 
>> Best regards,
>> Makoto