RE: What is "mobile" (was Re: Fwd: Screen Reader Audio on Mobile)

Hi Patrick,

While I completely agree that there is nothing fundamentally unique to mobile on the list, I think it's too far to say, as you suggest, that "the note should clarify that indeed there is no such thing as "mobile"

For one, "mobile" is a *very* commonly used term and so when people are concerned about how to make mobile offerings accessible, they'll likely use that term in their search and we want them to find our page.

That said, I don't see why the technique buckets that the Mobile Note (and Understanding WCAG) points to couldn't be named along the lines you suggest "Touchscreen extension" etc.

Cheers,
Jan

(MR) JAN RICHARDS
PROJECT MANAGER
INCLUSIVE DESIGN RESEARCH CENTRE (IDRC)
OCAD UNIVERSITY

T 416 977 6000 x3957
F 416 977 9844
E jrichards@ocadu.ca

________________________________________
From: Patrick H. Lauke [redux@splintered.co.uk]
Sent: October-06-15 1:50 PM
To: public-mobile-a11y-tf@w3.org
Subject: What is "mobile" (was Re: Fwd: Screen Reader Audio on Mobile)

On 06/10/2015 18:17, Richards, Jan wrote:
> Hi Patrick,
>
> I don't think there can bright line between mobile and non-mobile, as we tried to explain in the note:
> http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-accessibility-mapping/#wcag-2.0-and-mobile-content-applications
>
> Do you think there is anything more that needs to be added to that section?

Although the note starts off explaining that the term is a bit fluid, it
then proceeds to still try and define characteristics that are somehow
unique to "mobile" - or rather "issues that are different from the
typical desktop/laptop" - thus reinforcing once again the distinction
which it just explained isn't as clear-cut.

While the issues it then goes on to explain are of course valid, they
apply to individual aspects (such as "a small screen display", "a
touchscreen interface", "on-screen keyboards", "gesture interactions"
etc) which can certainly happen on desktop (e.g. desktop with a small
screen, or a browser window set to be smaller than the fullscreen size;
a desktop with an attached touchscreen, a laptop with a touchscreen, a
two-in-one device like the Surface).

As it's of course too late to now backtrack from the "mobile"
terminology (and instead make smaller, more focused TFs/extensions such
as a "touchscreen extension"), I'd think perhaps the note should clarify
that indeed there is no such thing as "mobile", but that the term is
used as an umbrella term for various characteristics (small screen,
touchscreen interface) that are typicially associated with
"mobile/tablet" devices...and then, instead of trying to reinforce that
"mobile" is indeed a special case, simply explain that of course in
isolation, these issues apply just as well to traditionally "non-mobile"
devices under certain conditions (with examples as above, e.g.
desktop/laptop with a touchscreen).

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

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Received on Tuesday, 6 October 2015 18:12:32 UTC