Re: Proposed Set of Needs/Preferences for v1

On Feb 6, 2013, at 8:33 AM, Sangwhan Moon <smoon@opera.com> wrote:

> On Feb 6, 2013, at 11:30 PM, Andy Heath wrote:
> 
>> Attached are the proposed preferences for V1 as promised.  They are distilled/smplified from the IMS AfA 3.0 preferences.  A very few small ones added. Apologies for the slight lateness and for the zip file but it was tricky to maintain the style sheets/macros used in editing the document without doing that.
> 
> I've reviewed the document for the last hour, and must point out that almost none of
> these preferences are available on a user agent level implementation. Either they
> need to be propagated from the host OS or accessibility software. (in which case,
> introduces the question of "via what protocol?")

I think we as a group are still discussing two very different things, which for lack of better terms, I'll call "wishlist preferences" versus "actual preferences." Actual device, browser, and AT preferences include things with existing settings like font size, colors, and whether or not captions are enabled. What I'm referring to as "wishlist preferences" include some things in Andy's proposal like "I'd prefer access to an transcript if you have one." I don't know of any system that has a preference like this, and on the Web it's usually exposed as link near the audio player.

Given that groups like AfA and GPII have taken time to codify these "wishlist preferences" I'm not keen on duplicating that effort, and was hoping to only specify the more common "actual preferences." For the users and tools that need more explicit preferences that are not available as part of the system settings, we've discussed allow namespaced or prefixed taxonomy keys to be referenced with the preference key.

> At the moment, the only information that Opera (sorry for making Opera the example)
> can provide from this perspective is "screen reader active and exists?" = true | false.
> I don't think other browsers are significantly more advanced in this regard either.
> 
> Some operating systems provide this information on a system level, but not all OSes
> provide ways to determine this in a reliable manner. And for certain properties (e.g. tactile),
> I'm afraid there isn't a standardized way to know if such a device exists - making it quite
> challenging to implement for browser vendors.

Agreed. 

> Would there be any possibility to revise this to a level where we have a common set
> of things that are readily available on at least the three major operating systems?

Which three would those be? ;-) Are you talking about the three main desktop operating systems? 

> P.S. Will there be real "browser preferences" in the spec too?

Yes. I was hoping the other proposal would include more of these, but it's not too late to start the list here. Please add to it with other suggestions.

	String		fontSize (value + unit strings like CSS-formatted '12px', or '24pt')
	String		minFontSize
	
Note: These are intended mostly as convenience properties. Technically it's possible to figure out fontSize and minFontSize today, but it's a pain because you need to draw one element at 100% the default font size and one at some tiny size, normalize the box model, and then check the offsetHeights and adjust for any other minor browser differences. 

	Color		color
	Color		backgroundColor

These colors would initially seem like convenience properties, but would retain the value of the user CSS or system setting even if your web app has overwritten the colors of the root element in the web view.

	Boolean		deviceMuted
	Boolean		monoAudio (for example, could toggle with accessibility pref or when stereo headphones were connected on devices with a mono external speaker)

Received on Wednesday, 20 February 2013 01:24:02 UTC