Re: Unconference Discussion Topic - Declarative XR

Hello Leonard (and the rest of this list),

I'm mostly a lurker here, as I don't really know a lot about
AR/VR/Immersive tech, BUT, I am very active in the WAI (Web Accessibility
Initiative) at the W3C, including being an active member and contributor to
the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group and the APA (Accessible Platform
Architecture) WG. So I try to follow along, watching for and thinking about
where and when digital accessibility intersects with this topic.

Your punch-list strikes me as one of those insertion points, especially the
Declarative and Compatible requirements. I'd add to the list of
HTML/DOM/JavaScript to also allow for ARIA support, and (I suspect) support
for Shadow DOM (which historically was one of the outcomes of attempts at
making <canvas> accessible). Having an emergent spec at the W3C that
supports (or allows for the support) of the WCAG (2.1) Recommendation
<https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21> is a critical goal (although, truthfully,
we're not fully aware of *what* specifically we may additionally need
related to AR/VR/Immersive today - it's relatively early days all around -
thus my part-time lurking).

Broadly speaking (for those who may only have a fleeting familiarity of
digital accessibility) our Recommendation is based on 4 basic principals:
content must be Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust.

The first three principals are also related to multi-modal 'consumption',
and what happens when one or more modes of perception, operation or
comprehension is absent, or requires an 'alternative' or accommodation. The
robustness principle is mostly related to compatibility with not only the
'traditional' stack of OS + browser (and add in there many of the concepts
of RWD development), but also when assistive technology is part of the
user-agent stack (think screen readers, but there are other tools as well).
My general sense is that AR/VR is still very  much visual at its base (but
need it be?), but other disability groups may also need some accommodation
(i.e. a AR/VR space that also provided captions for non-hearing users would
be very cool. An AR/VR space that had a speech-to-text engine integrated
into it, with the ability to output an avatar's "speaking" as a textual
alternative in a 'caption' region or as a floating bubble over the avatar -
maybe this already exists, I don't know...)

Sadly, I will not be at your F2F, but I'm off to look at XSeen next, and
whether via this group/list, or if you want off-list, I'd be happy to chat
with you more about this intersection if you (or anyone reading this) is
interested.

Have a great F2F!

JF
(FACTOID OF THE DAY: Did you know that when you turn on VoiceOver on your
iPhone or iPad, that it re-maps some of the gestures as well as adds
additional gestures? It's true.
<https://www.apple.com/voiceover/info/guide/_1137.html>)
-- 
*John Foliot* | Principal Accessibility Strategist | W3C AC Representative
Deque Systems - Accessibility for Good
deque.com

On Thu, Jan 17, 2019 at 3:19 PM Leonard Daly <web3d@realism.com> wrote:

> I have been advised that the regular presentations (lightning and
> discussion) are for standards (WebXR or otherwise) issue resolutions and
> other standards efforts. At the end of the conference (possibly Wed
> afternoon) will be an unconference session.
> I would to have a futures topic discussion on declarative languages for
> XR. The goal would be to share and understand what people think should be
> in a language and the pros/cons for languages under development or being
> used.
>
> My contribution to this discussion is XSeen (https://xseen.org/). I
> started this language 2 years ago after an exhaustive search for a language
> that meet the following criteria:
>
>    1. Declarative
>    2. Compatible (integrates) with HTML/DOM/JavaScript (CSS optional)
>    3. Rich enough to allow web designers to easily include 3D (inline and
>    immersive XR content)
>    4. Open source
>
> I found many that met 2 or more, a few that met 3, and nothing (according
> to my thinking) that met all four.
>
> If this topic interests you, please reply to the list or me personally. I
> will post additional material about XSeen as needed.
> --
> *Leonard Daly*
> 3D Systems Architect & Cloud Consultant
> President, Daly Realism - *Creating the Future*
>