Re: Two variants for the redefinition of "accessibility services of software"

Mike,

I suggest the survey be:

  * Look at Proposal #3 (in both variants)
  * Among the variants:
      o Prefer #3a; accept as-is
      o Prefer #3a; accept with following changes
      o Prefer #3b; accept as-is
      o Prefer #3b; accept with following changes
      o Don't have a preference; either fine as-is
      o Don't like any of them
      o [place to enter "following changes" text]
  * Separate from the variants, looking at the places we use
    "accessibility services":
      o Accept the proposed changes to the 4 places we use
        "accessibility services" as-is
      o Accept the proposed changes to the 4 places we use
        "accessibility services" with following changes
      o Don't like this at all
      o [place to enter "following changes" text]



That gives everyone space to record their thoughts, while in parallel we 
discuss on mailing list.


Peter


On 6/5/2013 10:53 AM, Michael Pluke wrote:
>
> I am now finalising the survey for Friday. We are clearly not reaching 
> consensus here at the moment. I have two options:
>
> -Omit this item from the survey and hope we achieve an internal 
> consensus later -- and maybe issue a 2^nd one-item survey.
>
> -Proceed NOW with what we already have on the page that Peter wrote.
>
> -I prefer the latter option -- so I would like to cite that in the survey.
>
> In this case, as the one thing we seem to agree upon is that we all 
> like some variant of #3a. I therefore propose that:
>
> - the page is renamed as "New glossary term "accessibility services of 
> platform software"
>
> -The red title is changed to "Proposals #3: "accessibility services of 
> platform software" (if we remove the 3a and 3b variants or, if we wish 
> to retain those it will have to be "Proposal# 4" (I suggest we 
> entirely forget the 3a/3b ideas)
>
> -In the text under that heading the second paragraph is removed
>
> -In the last paragraph the "In both cases," is removed and the final 
> text in quotes in that paragraph is corrected to ""accessibility 
> services of platform software".
>
> -Variant 3b is removed.
>
> Could you please make those changes Peter (I don't trust my Google 
> Docs editing (non-)skills.
>
> Best regards
>
> Mike
>
> *From:*Peter Korn [mailto:peter.korn@oracle.com]
> *Sent:* 05 June 2013 18:34
> *To:* Michael Pluke
> *Cc:* Gregg Vanderheiden; public-wcag2ict-tf@w3.org
> *Subject:* Re: Two variants for the redefinition of "accessibility 
> services of software"
>
> Mike, Gregg,
>
> I have some trouble by the "services ... used by ... non-Web 
> documents", as that confers a level of agency that I don't see present 
> in /non-software /documents.
>
> A DAISY book doesn't use the accessibility services in the DAISY 
> reader.  The DAISY reader extracts & displays the captions from the 
> DAISY file.  There is no code in a DAISY file.  The captions are 
> encoded in DAISY; they are extracted by the user agent (the DAISY 
> player).  An HTML5 player, complete with Javascript & perhaps other 
> code, is software.
>
> Gregg - you write below: /A user agent is already "platform software"  
> so we can't say     "other platform software or user agents" /
>
> Where do we say this?
>
> We define user agent <http://www.w3.org/TR/wcag2ict/#keyterms_ua> as 
> "any software that retrieves and presents documents for users".  So a 
> user agent is software.  But not all software is a platform.
>
> Some user agents are platforms, but not all.  Notepad is a user agent 
> (by our definition).  How is it a platform?
>
>
> Peter
>
> On 6/5/2013 10:05 AM, Michael Pluke wrote:
>
>     I think that I could live with your suggestion of:
>
>     -services provided by an operating system, user agent, or other
>     platform software  that are used by software  or non-web documents
>     to expose information about the user interface and events to
>     assistive technologies.
>
>     It doesn't entirely avoid the issue of whether documents can
>     actually do things like "using" something, but I think that the
>     meaning of the above is definitely clear enough for me.
>
>     Best regards
>
>     Mike
>
>     *From:*Gregg Vanderheiden [mailto:gv@trace.wisc.edu]
>     *Sent:* 05 June 2013 17:21
>     *To:* Michael Pluke
>     *Cc:* Peter Korn; public-wcag2ict-tf@w3.org
>     <mailto:public-wcag2ict-tf@w3.org>
>     *Subject:* Re: Two variants for the redefinition of "accessibility
>     services of software"
>
>     hmmm
>
>     I see where you are going -- and I kind of like it but I'm not
>     sure what the SOFTWARE is that is right after  "used by"
>
>     What software is that?    the user agent?    then the user agent
>     is providing the service to itself?
>
>     I think the user agent provides the service to the non-web document.
>
>     - for example -  a daisy book  (epub 3 book now)  uses the
>     accessibility services in the epub player to expose its captions
>     (for captioned material) etc, and uses the Operating System
>     accessibility services to have the book read aloud.     (or
>     actually the ebook may use the epub reader/player for everything
>     and the epub reader may (or may not) make use of accessibility
>     services in the OS  (may not - because they may decide to do it
>     all themselves).
>
>     in any case,  the ebook (a non-web document) is using the
>     accessibility services of the reader (a user agent)
>
>     the language for this would then be
>
>         -services provided by an operating system or other platform
>         software including user agents  that are used by software  or
>         non-web documents to expose information about the user
>         interface and events to assistive technologies
>
>     or perhaps easier to read
>
>         *-****services provided by an operating system, user agent, or
>         other platform software  that are used by software  or non-web
>         documents to expose information about the user interface and
>         events to assistive technologies*
>
>         **
>
>     A user agent is already "platform software"  so we can't say    
>     "other platform software or user agents"  .   That is like saying
>           or other engineer or electrical engineer.
>
>     Make sense?
>
>     /Gregg/
>
>     --------------------------------------------------------
>
>     Gregg Vanderheiden Ph.D.
>     Director Trace R&D Center
>     Professor Industrial & Systems Engineering
>     and Biomedical Engineering University of Wisconsin-Madison
>
>     Technical Director - Cloud4all Project - http://Cloud4all.info
>     Co-Director, Raising the Floor - International -
>     http://Raisingthefloor.org
>     and the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure Project -
>     http://GPII.net
>
>     On Jun 5, 2013, at 12:09 PM, Michael Pluke
>     <Mike.Pluke@castle-consult.com
>     <mailto:Mike.Pluke@castle-consult.com>> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>     Would the following, slightly more verbose, wording work for everyone?
>
>     -services provided by an operating system, other platform
>     software, or a user agent that are used by software to expose
>     information about the user interface and events, of software or
>     non-web documents, to assistive technologies
>
>                                                                                                                                                          &!
>     nbsp;&nb sp;
>
>     It is a little cumbersome and Peter might argue that the "of
>     software or non-web documents" is not needed -- but it does at
>     least address that software is the thing that uses services.
>
>     Mike
>
>     *From:*Peter Korn [mailto:peter.korn@oracle.com <http://oracle.com>]
>     *Sent:*05 June 2013 16:58
>     *To:*Gregg Vanderheiden
>     *Cc:*Michael Pluke;public-wcag2ict-tf@w3.org
>     <mailto:public-wcag2ict-tf@w3.org>
>     *Subject:*Re: Two variants for the redefinition of "accessibility
>     services of software"
>
>     Gregg,
>
>     Let me try this another way:
>
>     Software contains at least logic statements - things like
>     "if-then".  Software processes input, generates output.  In
>     contrast, markup (like HTML, which some people call "code" but I
>     would simply say "is an encoding") doesn't contain such logic.  It
>     doesn't actually process input.  It isn't the thing
>     that/generates/the output (it may/be/the output, but that is
>     different).
>
>     So: if something is software - e.g. Javascript in a web
>     application - then it is software.  It is covered by the existing
>     text.  If something is NOT software - e.g. a static web page -
>     then it is/only/a document (with whatever markup), and so it
>     is/only/the user agent that is taking advantage of "accessibility
>     services" or "other software APIs".
>
>     Make sense?
>
>
>     Also, I disagree with your statement below. /All/software does in
>     fact make use of some form of platform services.  Even software
>     that only calculates the Fibonacci series and prints the result or
>     writes it to a file.  It is using/some/platform service to print
>     the result, to open/write to the file.  In fact,/even software
>     that does no i/o/is using some platform service/just to be loaded
>     into memory/.  Many kinds of software don't have a visual UI
>     (daemon services for example), and so aren't covered by WCAG2ICT
>     and don't have any reason to use platform accessibility services. 
>     But they all use some kind of platform non-accessibility service.
>
>
>     As to "pure HTML/markup" documents that have form fields: again,
>     there is no/logic/there. The user agent does the logic.  The user
>     agent notices the click (or <ENTER>) on the "submit" button, etc. 
>     If you really want to push things and say that the markup
>     contains/some/logic (mapping the submit button to a particular new
>     URL so that the "if-then" of "if click then go to page" logic is
>     in the markup), I'll grant you an edge case.  But again, there is
>     so little logic there, and the HTML isn't/actively/utilizing any
>     accessibility APIs, etc.  I find this a much cleaner distinction
>     to make.
>
>     Note by the way, we had/this same/problem/discussion in TEITAC.
>
>
>     Peter
>
>     On 6/5/2013 8:31 AM, Gregg Vanderheiden wrote:
>
>         Hi Peter
>
>         Not ALL non-web documents do  (and not ALL Software makes use
>         of platform services).   But since SOME do , it needs to be in
>         the definition - No? .
>
>          If you want to put SOME in front of  non-web documents  and
>         MOST in front of software that is fine. But not necessary.
>
>         Actually don't most ALL non-web documents that have user
>         interface components in them expose them through user agent
>         services?   Doesn't all AT access the content via the user
>         agent ?  (or can they access content on non-web documents that
>         are not opened in a user agent?)
>
>         /Gregg/
>
>         --------------------------------------------------------
>
>         Gregg Vanderheiden Ph.D.
>         Director Trace R&D Center
>         Professor Industrial & Systems Engineering
>         and Biomedical Engineering University of Wisconsin-Madison
>
>         Technical Director - Cloud4all Project -http://Cloud4all.info
>         Co-Director, Raising the Floor - International -
>         http://Raisingthefloor.org
>         and the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure Project -
>         http://GPII.net
>
>         On Jun 5, 2013, at 11:26 AM, Peter Korn <peter.korn@oracle.com
>         <mailto:peter.korn@oracle.com>> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>         Wading in...
>
>         While I see many (though not all) user agents as being
>         platforms (hence Note 1 in platform software), I don't see all
>         (or even most) documents as utilizing "a set of software
>         services".  Since software services are APIs, and it is
>         programming code that invokes APIs, documents that don't
>         contain programming code (e.g. a simple text document) by
>         definition cannot use those APIs, and so by definition don't
>         use software services.
>
>         Recall the WCAG2ICT definition ofuser agent
>         <http://www.w3.org/TR/wcag2ict/#keyterms_ua>- it is the thing
>         that "retrieves and presents documents".  That thing clearly
>         parses the documents - gets whatever markup is in them, etc. -
>         and then utilizes the accessibility services of the platform
>         underneath it.  Where that user agent is also a platform
>         (Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, a web browser running
>         Javascript code, a Java runtime), it also is a platform.  But
>         Notepad and Wordpad aren't platforms.  They are, however, by
>         our definition, user agents.
>
>
>         Make sense?
>
>
>         Given that, I would not insert the text "non-Web documents" as
>         Gregg is proposing.
>
>
>         Peter
>
>         On 6/5/2013 7:50 AM, Michael Pluke wrote:
>
>             I guess conceptually from a WCAG point of view that is the
>             case.
>
>             It seems that I have a persistent problem seeing how lines
>             of code in document (e.g. Web page, word doc) can,*in
>             reality*, do anything like "expose information". To me it
>             is clear that it is the user agent that takes the web
>             page/document and "exposes information about the user
>             interface (as encoded in the page/document) to assistive
>             technologies." Although conceptually the user agent may
>             offer its services to the document, I still struggle to
>             see what a document, or anything else that is not
>             software, can*do*with this offer. Surely only software can
>             actually*do*things -- and that is why all documents need a
>             user agent*to do things*.
>
>             But I guess I will have to learn to live with this
>             conceptual myopia (if that is what it is) -- as long as
>             everyone else is comfortable with what you have written.
>             Certainly your text is simple and clear.
>
>             I would still prefer to see the notes in their original order.
>
>             Best regards
>
>             Mike
>
>             *From:*Gregg Vanderheiden [mailto:gv@trace.wisc.edu]
>             *Sent:*05 June 2013 15:14
>             *To:*Michael Pluke
>             *Cc:*Peter Korn;public-wcag2ict-tf@w3.org
>             <mailto:public-wcag2ict-tf@w3.org>
>             *Subject:*Re: Two variants for the redefinition of
>             "accessibility services of software"
>
>             On Jun 5, 2013, at 10:07 AM, Michael Pluke
>             <Mike.Pluke@castle-consult.com
>             <mailto:Mike.Pluke@castle-consult.com>> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>             I'm not so certain whether this addition is needed. In my
>             mind it is always software that actually uses the services
>             that the platform provides. In the case of non-web
>             documents I see it as being the user agent that uses the
>             services to "expose information about the user interface
>             to assistive technologies". So I do not see that it is
>             necessary to add non-web documents to the first
>             definition. For the second it is more complex as I see the
>             user agent using the services to expose information about
>             the user interface of both the user agent AND the document
>             to assistive technologies. In this case it might be OK to
>             stick with Peter's original wording or it might be
>             necessary to craft something much more complex.
>
>             Did you not see that USER AGENT is an example of platform?
>
>             All browsers are platforms.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>             I realise that I am far less experienced at interpreting
>             the underlying WCAG 2.0 model of content and user agents,
>             so I accept that my interpretation may be wrong -- but I
>             think that expert eyes need to look again at Peter's
>             original definitions and Gregg's amendments.
>
>             In either case I do not think that reversing the notes as
>             Gregg has done adds clarity to the original (it either has
>             no effect or, in my view, makes it marginally less good).
>
>             In constructing the survey I will point to the place where
>             Peter has written the original proposals. If we can
>             resolve some alternative text before the survey is sent
>             out, then this text needs to be changed (preferably by
>             Peter or Gregg who are adept with editing the wiki).
>
>             Best regards
>
>             Mike
>
>             *From:*Gregg Vanderheiden [mailto:gv@trace.wisc.edu
>             <http://trace.wisc.edu/>]
>             *Sent:*05 June 2013 04:27
>             *To:*Peter Korn
>             *Cc:*public-wcag2ict-tf@w3.org
>             <mailto:public-wcag2ict-tf@w3.org>
>             *Subject:*Re: Two variants for the redefinition of
>             "accessibility services of software"
>
>             very nice
>
>             only one thing I think needs to be fixed.
>
>             You discuss user agents as an example but don't have
>              non-web documents anywhere in either.
>
>             also
>
>             Below are the same text with NON WEB DOCUMENTS in the
>             correct places
>
>             Because both notes contain User agents and virtual
>             machines -- I think it reads better to reverse them (as
>             shown below) (I didn't fix the note numbering so you can
>             see the switch)
>
>             Very nice
>
>             gregg
>
>
>                   platform software
>
>             The term *platform software*, as used in WCAG2ICT, has the
>             meaning below:
>
>             *platform software*
>
>             collection of software components that run on an
>             underlying software or hardware layer, and that provides a
>             set of software services to applications OR NON-WEB
>             DOCUMENTS that allow them to be isolated from the
>             underlying software or hardware layer
>
>             *Note 2:* Sometimes platform software is also a software
>             application (e.g. a user agent or a virtual machine).
>
>             *Note 1: *Examples of platform software include operating
>             systems, user agents, and virtual machines.
>
>
>                   accessibility services of platform software
>
>             The term *accessibility services of platform software*, as
>             used in WCAG2ICT, has the meaning below:
>
>             *accessibility services of platform software*
>
>             services provided by *platform software *that are used by
>             software OR NON-WEB DOCUMENTS to expose information about
>             the user interface to assistive technologies
>
>             *Note 1: *These services are commonly provided in the form
>             of accessibility APIs (application programming
>             interfaces), and they provide two-way communication with
>             assistive technologies, including exposing information
>             about objects and events.
>
>             *Note 2:**Platform software* that is also an application
>             may simply expose the accessibility services of the
>             underlying platform layer, rather expose its own set of
>             accessibility services.  Alternately it may translate
>             between the set it exposes and those of the underlying
>             platform layer.
>
>             /Gregg/
>
>             --------------------------------------------------------
>
>             Gregg Vanderheiden Ph.D.
>             Director Trace R&D Center
>             Professor Industrial & Systems Engineering
>             and Biomedical Engineering University of Wisconsin-Madison
>
>             Technical Director - Cloud4all Project
>             -http://Cloud4all.info <http://cloud4all.info/>
>             Co-Director, Raising the Floor - International -
>             http://Raisingthefloor.org <http://raisingthefloor.org/>
>             and the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure Project -
>             http://GPII.net <http://gpii.net/>
>
>             On Jun 4, 2013, at 8:46 PM, Peter Korn
>             <peter.korn@oracle.com <mailto:peter.korn@oracle.com>> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>             Hi gang,
>
>             Coming out of our last meeting on 31June13, I have taken a
>             whack at redefining "accessibility services of software"
>             to make more central the concept that this is
>             about/platform software/, and not all software generally.
>
>             Please seeProposal #3 at New glossary term "accessibility
>             services of software and assistive technology"
>             <https://sites.google.com/site/wcag2ict/edits-for-michael-post-2nd-public-draft/new-glossary-term-accessibility-services-of-software-and-assistive-technology>
>
>             In particular, please see both***/Variant #3a/*in which I
>             keep our existing definition text, but simply change the
>             title of the term to "*accessibility services of platform
>             software*"; and then see*/Variant #3b/*in which I
>             introduce yet another new term: "*platform software*",
>             when I then leverage in next text for the retitled term
>             "*accessibility services of platform software*".
>
>             Fundamentally*/Variant #3a/*is the more minimal / less
>             invasive change, while*/Variant #3b/*makes fuller use of
>             the "teachable moment" that our Technical Report affords
>             us.  Please also note the section*For reference, from ISO
>             13066-1*at the bottom of that wiki page, from which I draw
>             on (but do not expressly mimic) that ISO text. While it is
>             somewhat tempting to lift definitions word for word from
>             ISO 13066-1, those definitions leverage terms & concentps
>             that have slightly different existing definitions in WCAG
>             2.0 (e.g. AT), and I am also unclear on whether such
>             copying is of a copyright ISO standard is OK in a non-ISO
>             document such as our TR.
>
>             Below both variants on the wiki page please see*"Edits to
>             other terms common to both Variants #3a and #3b"*where I
>             show show how the new term "accessibility services of
>             platform software" would impact our two glossary terms
>             "programmatically set" and "programmatically determined",
>             as well as Principal 4 and Guideline 4.1 (the change is
>             the same under both variants).
>
>
>             I personally don't have a strong preference
>             between*/Variant #3a/*and*/Variant #3b/*- different things
>             attract me to each of them.  I solicit comments / feedback
>             on them, ahead of a formal survey (perhaps tomorrow?)
>             ahead of our Friday meeting.  I suggest we survey both
>             approaches (as well as the follow-on edits to those two
>             terms, the principal, and the guideline).
>
>
>
>             Peter
>
>             --
>             <oracle_sig_logo.gif> <http://www.oracle.com/>
>             Peter Korn | Accessibility Principal
>             Phone:+1 650 5069522 <tel:+1%20650%205069522>
>             500 Oracle Parkway | Redwood City, CA 94065
>             <green-for-email-sig_0.gif>
>             <http://www.oracle.com/commitment>Oracle is committed to
>             developing practices and products that help protect the
>             environment
>
>         --
>
>         Peter Korn | Accessibility Principal
>         Phone:+1 650 5069522 <tel:+1%20650%205069522>
>         500 Oracle Parkway | Redwood City, CA 94065
>         Oracle is committed to developing practices and products that
>         help protect the environment
>
>         <oracle_sig_logo.gif><green-for-email-sig_0.gif>
>
>     --
>     <image001.gif> <http://www.oracle.com>
>     Peter Korn | Accessibility Principal
>     Phone:+1 650 5069522 <tel:+1%20650%205069522>
>     500 Oracle Parkway | Redwood City, CA 94065
>     <image002.gif> <http://www.oracle.com/commitment>Oracle is
>     committed to developing practices and products that help protect
>     the environment
>
> -- 
> Oracle <http://www.oracle.com>
> Peter Korn | Accessibility Principal
> Phone: +1 650 5069522 <tel:+1%20650%205069522>
> 500 Oracle Parkway | Redwood City, CA 94064
> Green Oracle <http://www.oracle.com/commitment>Oracle is committed to 
> developing practices and products that help protect the environment
>

-- 
Oracle <http://www.oracle.com>
Peter Korn | Accessibility Principal
Phone: +1 650 5069522 <tel:+1%20650%205069522>
500 Oracle Parkway | Redwood City, CA 94064
Green Oracle <http://www.oracle.com/commitment> Oracle is committed to 
developing practices and products that help protect the environment

Received on Wednesday, 5 June 2013 17:59:51 UTC