Re: [WCAG2ICT] Text / Command-line / Terminal Applications and Interfaces work

Terminal escape codes are interesting for the reasons that Matthew describes. As a user, though, I haven’t found the lack of structure that can be programmatically determined to be an accessibility issue in most terminal-based interfaces, since the information is usually available in the text or recognizable from context.
I am somewhat sceptical that trying to fit all of these interfaces into a WCAG paradigm is ultimately going to further accessibility significantly. It would be better for a suitable organization to write guidelines properly tailored to text and terminal-based environments.
Regards,
Jason.

From: Matthew Atkinson <matkinson@tpgi.com>
Date: Friday, May 5, 2023 at 07:53
To: Mary Jo Mueller <maryjom@us.ibm.com>, Jason J.G. White <jason@jasonjgw.com>, Janina Sajka <janina@rednote.net>
Cc: public-wcag2ict-tf@w3.org <public-wcag2ict-tf@w3.org>
Subject: Re: [WCAG2ICT] Text / Command-line / Terminal Applications and Interfaces work
Hi all,

I found a couple of pages that mentions some extra things that can be done via proprietary escape codes in some terminal emulators. As mentioned, I'm wondering if (in future) similar techniques could be a way to impart accessibility info to ATs.

* E.g. iTerm2/VTE's feature to make hyperlinks: https://iterm2.com/documentation-escape-codes.html (there's an H4 called "Anchor (OSC 8)").

* E.g. Kitty has features to style underlines, modify scrolling, transfer files, modify how the keyboard input is handled, output graphics, and so on: https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/protocol-extensions/


Best regards,


Matthew
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Matthew Tylee Atkinson (he/him)
--
Principal Accessibility Engineer
TPG Interactive
https://www.tpgi.com

A Vispero Company
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On 05/05/2023, 00:37, "Mary Jo Mueller" <maryjom@us.ibm.com <mailto:maryjom@us.ibm.com>> wrote:


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Hi all,


I’ve collated the responses from Matthew and Jason into one spreadsheet (attached) and then highlighted in Bold text with a yellow highlight the cells where the yes/no responses were different – to make them easy for me to find. The individual responses are there so one could instead read through and still identify where there’s differences.


Janina also made a pull request with her suggested changes, so here’s a link to the proposed changes <https://github.com/w3c/wcag2ict/pull/154/files> <https://github.com/w3c/wcag2ict/pull/154/files&gt;> and links to the rendered content: How text interfaces are realized <https://deploy-preview-154--wcag2ict.netlify.app/#how-text-interfaces-are-realized> <https://deploy-preview-154--wcag2ict.netlify.app/#how-text-interfaces-are-realized&gt;> and Text / Command-lin / Terminal Applications and Interfaces <https://deploy-preview-154--wcag2ict.netlify.app/#text-command-line-terminal-applications-and-interfaces> <https://deploy-preview-154--wcag2ict.netlify.app/#text-command-line-terminal-applications-and-interfaces&gt;>.


Looking forward to our discussion in the morning.


Best Regards,


Mary Jo


From: Jason J.G. White <jason@jasonjgw.com <mailto:jason@jasonjgw.com>>
Date: Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:38 PM
To: Matthew Atkinson <matkinson@tpgi.com <mailto:matkinson@tpgi.com>>, Mary Jo Mueller <maryjom@us.ibm.com <mailto:maryjom@us.ibm.com>>
Cc: Daniel Montalvo <dmontalvo@w3.org <mailto:dmontalvo@w3.org>>, Janina Sajka <janina@rednote.net <mailto:janina@rednote.net>>, Shadi Abou-Zahra <sabouzah@amazon.at <mailto:sabouzah@amazon.at>>, Mitchell Evan <mevan@tpgi.com <mailto:mevan@tpgi.com>>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [WCAG2ICT] Spreadsheet to provide your analysis


Thank you, Matthew. I trust we can reconcile the differences between our
analyses in due course.


Regards,


Jason.


On 3/5/23 13:29, Matthew Atkinson wrote:
> Hi Mary, all,
>
> Here's mine (I tried not to look at Jason's too much, but it was interesting to compare notes). One gap I think we have (that holds some promise for accessibility) is that I don't think we talked about what you can do with terminal escape codes, and whilst filling this in, I had a recollection of some really fancy things that could be achieved, even now. I then wondered if (in future, out of scope right now, but I'd like to get your thoughts) we could use the same sorts of mechanisms (extended escape codes) to have apps provide more info, like 1.3.1 and 4.1.2 structure/name/role/state/value/purpose sort-of info, to the terminal emulators?
>
> I don't have the cycles to give examples right now, other than to mention that I _think_ it is possible to make actual hyperlinks without having to show the URL (unless I'm totally wrong), and also to point at the advanced features that iTerm2 (and similar Terminal Emulators) can offer with its shell integration (which I gather works via escape codes), which I think I mentioned before: https://iterm2.com/documentation-shell-integration.html <https://iterm2.com/documentation-shell-integration.html> <https://iterm2.com/documentation-shell-integration.html> <https://iterm2.com/documentation-shell-integration.html&gt;>
>
> Best regards,
>
>
> Matthew