RE: [css-content] Request for note regarding selection, search, and accessibility of generated content

I hadn’t seen Joanie’s note before, but it strikes me as a very difficult request. There are a lot of generated strings available that are helpful for navigation. CSS gives us a way to generate elements like running headers and footers, so that the reader has context. This is useful to all readers. If there is any way that we can make this work in the accessible world, it will be a boon for accessibility. Calls to footnotes and figures, page numbers, list numbers, etc. are all generated as well. I would like to think automated numbering is something that AT can explore, at least in contained structures.

It is a worth reviewing the specifics of the current draft of  Generated Content and Paged Media spec [1] to see that this has very little to do with decorative elements.

So, even though it seems like this is a dead end, I think we need to figure out a way to make these elements accessible. I don’t think putting a note in the spec will stop people from using these elements for meaningful content, and these are extremely useful tools. Do we have to write a CSS AAM? File bugs?

[1] https://drafts.csswg.org/css-gcpm/


Tzviya Siegman
Digital Book Standards & Capabilities Lead
Wiley
201-748-6884
tsiegman@wiley.com<mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com>

From: Michiel Bijl [mailto:michiel@agosto.nl]
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2015 4:57 AM
To: Joanmarie Diggs
Cc: www-style@w3.org; W3C WAI Protocols & Formats
Subject: Re: [css-content] Request for note regarding selection, search, and accessibility of generated content

I don’t understand the question regarding VoiceOver in the mail you link to. Could you explain? Maybe I can test it.

—Michiel

On 29 Oct 2015, at 03:23, Joanmarie Diggs <jdiggs@igalia.com<mailto:jdiggs@igalia.com>> wrote:

Hi all.

I was chatting with Fantasai today about some long-standing bugs in user
agents in the areas of selection, search, and accessibility of generated
content. Given that these bugs seem to be present in most (all?) the
user agents [1] and apparently quite difficult to solve, would you be
willing to add a note to your spec encouraging authors to only use
generated content for things that are truly decorative?

Thanks in advance for considering this!
--joanie (PF/APA)

[1] https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-pfwg/2014Nov/0094.html