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

Dear Joel,

Thank you very much for letting me know, and I am grateful for the
discussion in the I18N WG.
I am glad to hear that the group agrees with the approach.

I will try to meet Richard and Fuqiao in Kobe.
My actions are based on the principle that accessibility must apply equally
across all natural languages, and I appreciate the support of the I18N WG
in affirming this.

Regards,
Makoto

2025年11月8日(土) 7:43 Joel Sahleen <joel@sahleen.net>:

> 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>:
>
>> 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
>> Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2025 07:15:43 +0900
>> From: 村田真 <founder@info-a11y.jp> <founder@info-a11y.jp>
>> To: Internationalization Working Group <public-i18n-core@w3.org>
>> <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
>>
>
>