RE: Closed non-embedded content???

It appears as if we are trying to combine multiple issues.

First, here is a clear and simple definition of closed functionality from the Mandate 376 EN.

closed functionality: characteristics that prevent a user from attaching or installing assistive technology

for the purposes of clause 10 in the Mandate 376, we are only concerned with non-web non-embedded content. You wouldn't attach or install assistive technology directly to a DRM protected content. If you do not have the necessary permissions to access the DRM content, you will not be able to access the content irrespective of you being an assistive technology user or not.

Now, there is an ebook platform in the market (Kindle) which has a specific flag to disable TTS output. but this TTS flag has nothing to do with assistive technology. The TTS/voice output feature is a feature provided by the platform. You cannot attach assistive technology to either the non-embedded content or the user agent on this platform. So, the user agent is closed functionality. And perhaps one can say that the content on this platform may potentially also be closed. But in this context, the content has no use or application outside the user agent. In other words, no user can do anything with this content outside of the platform.

Both Adobe Digital Editions on Mac and PC and iBooks on the iOS platform are used to read protected ebooks. If you have the necessary permissions to access the content on these platforms, they let you use your assistive technology to read those books. On the other hand, using Kindle as an example for closed non-embedded content doesn't make sense as the Kindle platform itself is closed.

Let us not confuse/combine "attaching or installing assistive technology" and "TTS Flag". They are two different issues. And as per the definition of closed functionality in the EN, we are only concerned with "attaching or installing assistive technology".

Regards,
Kiran Kaja
Adobe Systems

From: Loïc Martínez Normand [mailto:loic@fi.upm.es]
Sent: 19 October 2012 19:31
To: Peter Korn
Cc: Michael Pluke; public-wcag2ict-tf@w3.org
Subject: Re: Closed non-embedded content???

Hi,

Sorry for being late in this thread, but here are my "two cents".

I agree with Gregg and Peter. The non-web non-embedded content can be closed (by DRM) to accessibility features such as speech output. Of course it is the user agent who will make this "closure" happen. But if the content has the "voice output disabled" bit, then the user agent will be unable to provide non-visual access (of course, if the user agent behaves properly according to DRM). And, as Peter says, this is a "classical" example of "closed by policy".

To me this is not different to interactivity. Non-web non-embedded content, according to our definition, can be interactive, but the interactivity will only happen when the user agent is presenting the content.

Best regards,
Loïc
On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 7:15 PM, Peter Korn <peter.korn@oracle.com<mailto:peter.korn@oracle.com>> wrote:
Mike,

The DRM examples that Gregg raises in this thread arise from a combination of the document & the user agent.  In order for the DRM to work, the document (and any transmission of the document) needs to be encrypted, with the user agent doing the decryption.  And the situations in which the DRM does certain types of decryption depends upon the document.

Perhaps this is more "closed by policy" (of the rights holder), but the "closing bit or flag" is within the document.


Peter

On 10/19/2012 5:48 AM, Michael Pluke wrote:
Is there such a thing as non-Web non-embedded content that is closed?

Can anyone think of any examples? We need to answer this question urgently. In all the cases that we can think of it is the device (i.e. the user agent) that is closed.

Best regards

Mike

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Loïc Martínez-Normand
DLSIIS. Facultad de Informática
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Campus de Montegancedo
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