Accessibility and EME (was RE: Is EME usable regardless of the software/hardware I use ?)

Duncan Bayne wrote:
> 
> The *sole* purpose of EME is to interop with closed-source proprietary
> blobs called CDMs.  These will most assuredly not be available to all
> people regardless of hardware, software, network infrastructure, and
> geographical localtion.  They will probably not cater for those who
> speak non-mainstream languages, and who are physically disabled.

Please, enough with the FUD. You are spinning out "theories" dressed as
eventualities, and plain old making-it-up as you go along.

As someone who is very much involved with the accessibility efforts at the
W3C, blatant scare-mongering statements such as "...probably not cater for
those... who are physically disabled..." is groundless and without a shred
of evidence. Such statements reduce any sliver of credibility you might have
had, and reduce you in my mind to just another tin-foil-hat wearing
extremist who wants what he wants, regardless of what others may need or
want.

Well played!


(For those who actually *do* care about how EME might have an impact on
Persons with Disabilities - the HTML5 Accessibility Task Force, as well as
member of the Protocols and Formats Working Group at the W3C, have had some
useful discussion around EME, primarily in the April W3C Face-to-Face
meetings held in San Jose. Minutes can be found here:
http://www.w3.org/2013/04/23-html-wg-minutes.html#item12 As a participant, I
can also suggest that other discussions, not captured in the official
minutes, did happen at those meetings. There *might* be some outstanding
issues around accessibility and EME that have not yet surfaced, but at this
time there were no glaring issues. In true W3C collaboration, dialog is
on-going, and the engineers responsible for EME are keeping accessibility in
mind, and know where they can turn to if they have questions. Another
Value-Add to working on this at the W3C I might also suggest.)

JF
---------------
John Foliot
Web Accessibility Specialist
W3C Invited Expert | Co-Facilitator, W3C HTML5 Accessibility Task Force
(Media)

Received on Thursday, 13 June 2013 02:12:31 UTC