Disappointment (was: And... WAI_Adapt it is)

This is truly sad to hear Lionel, especially given there were some real and
valid reasons why both Lisa (one of the original co-chairs) and I were
unhappy with that particular name choice. I fear it is far too focused on
the ACC symbols piece, which is but 1/6th of our initial module - even
though that one proposed attribute has taken a lion's share of our time
since i18n got involved (who also did not understand our intentions).

I am also quite disappointed that a decision is being dictated to the group
that worked on this specification by outside commentators (so much for
seeking consensus at the W3C). I thought that Groups *should favor
proposals that create the weakest objections, which is preferred over
proposals that are supported by a large majority but that cause strong
objections from a few people*. FWIW, I strongly object to this name
choice, and regret that I was not as forceful in expressing the strength of
that objection earlier.

*********************
I again reiterate that there is NOTHING specifically related to adaptation
(def.:  the act or process of changing to better suit a situation) with the
proposed attributes of:

   - Action
   <https://www.w3.org/TR/personalization-semantics-content-1.0/#action-explanation>:
   The action attribute provides the context of a button. It is typically used
   on a button element or element with role="button".
   - Destination
   <https://www.w3.org/TR/personalization-semantics-content-1.0/#destination-explanation>:
The
   destination attribute categorizes the target of a hyperlink.
   - Purpose
   <https://www.w3.org/TR/personalization-semantics-content-1.0/#purpose-explanation>:
   The purpose attribute provides the context of a text input field such as a
   text box. It is typically used on an input of type text, or an element with
   a corresponding role.

Two of the above three specifically note that the attribute adds additional
contextual information to the parent element. It is true that we envision
that *user-agents* will be able to use our embedded metadata to customized
a specific user's experience based on that contextual information (which
may or may-not involve changing or modifying the user interface to meet
specific user needs), but we are creating an authoring spec, and not a
tool/mechanism/API/process that *does *the adaptation, which I argue the
current name choice seems to allude to. It also presumes that the ONLY
reason to add these attributes and values is for adaptation purposes,
completely ignoring the fact that embedded metadata can be far more useful
than just that.

For example, the attribute that was a bit of a template for our work, and
one that is currently the only technique for WCAG SC 1.3.5 "Purpose of
Input" is @autocomplete - where we essentially reverse-engineered that
attribute's intent (which was initially intended to simply assist in
filling forms) by noting that besides performing an action, we could use
that attribute and its fixed taxonomy list (tokens) to also output
information about the input in "different modalities". But at the end of
the day, that particular attribute does NOT provide any adaptations - it
simply tells user-agents what data to inject into form inputs.

I realise it is likely now too late to reverse things - the fiat decision
<https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fiat#:~:text=1%20:%20an%20authoritative%20or%20arbitrary,world%20was%20created%20by%20fiat.>
has
been made, and life moves on. But I remain quite unhappy with how this all
evolved; it was very un-W3C-process
<https://www.w3.org/2021/Process-20211102/#Consensus>-like.

JF




On Wed, Apr 6, 2022 at 3:26 PM Lionel Wolberger <lionel@userway.org> wrote:

> Dear Public-Personalization-Tf,
>
> We just completed the WAI Coordination Call, Janina, Matt, Sharon and
> Lionel attending representing Personalization, Shawn and Brent representing
> EO, as well as others. After a discussion where all issues that we have
> raised were aired, the decision was made:
>
> WAI-Adapt
>
> WAI-EO will consider composing a tagline, a short descriptor that would
> appear alongside it for example on the TPAC Introductory Slide.
>
> Thanks for a good process surrounding this,
>
> - Lionel
>
>
>
>
> Lionel Wolberger
> COO, UserWay Inc.
> lionel@userway.org
> UserWay.org <http://userway.org/>
> <https://userway.org>[image: text]
>


-- 
*John Foliot* |
Senior Industry Specialist, Digital Accessibility |
W3C Accessibility Standards Contributor |

"I made this so long because I did not have time to make it shorter." -
Pascal "links go places, buttons do things"