For Review: Specification for Spoken Presentation in HTML - First Working Draft

Dear WAI Interest Group,

W3C WAI invites you to comment on the First Public Working Draft of:
 Specification for Spoken Presentation in HTML
 https://www.w3.org/TR/spoken-html/

Background: This document is part of W3C work to provide normative specifications and best practice guidance so that text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis can properly pronounce HTML content. TTS has long been used by screen readers and other assistive technologies for people with disabilities. TTS is now also widely used in popular applications such as voice assistants. Yet today there is no way for content creators to markup HTML content so it is correctly and consistently spoken by all commonly used TTS engines and operating environments. This specification is intended to fill this critical gap.

For an introduction to pronunciation and related issues, see:
      Pronunciation Overview
      https://www.w3.org/WAI/pronunciation/

This First Public Working Draft specification describes two possible technical approaches for author-controlled pronunciation of HTML content, using Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML). It includes an analysis of each approach:
* multi-attribute approach — uses one or more element attributes with string values to convey each SSML function and property
* single-attribute approach — uses a single element attribute with a JavaScript object notation (JSON) string to convey all SSML functions and properties

Both approaches satisfy the requirements and provide consistent results. We seek feedback from authors and implementors on which approach would be most implementable across all applications of spoken presentation. Also:
* Are there additional approaches that are not described in this document?
* Are there aspects of these approaches that are incorrect or insufficiently defined?
* Have we overlooked some aspect in our analysis that should be addressed?

This feedback will help determine which approach will become the final standard.

Comments:
To provide feedback, please open a new issue in the Pronunciation GitHub repository:
       https://github.com/w3c/pronunciation/issues
Create separate GitHub issues for each topic, rather than commenting on multiple topics in a single issue.
If it’s not feasible for you to use GitHub, send comments in e-mail to:
       public-pronunciation@w3.org

Please send comments by *18 June 2021*.

Thank you in advance for your input on these approaches.

Regards,
Irfan Ali, Pronunciation Task Force Facilitator
Paul Grenier, Pronunciation Task Force Facilitator
Janina Sajka, APA Working Group Co-Chair
Becky Gibson, APA Working Group Co-Chair
Roy Ran, W3C Staff Contact for Pronunciation Task Force



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Received on Wednesday, 19 May 2021 00:45:50 UTC