Re: PFWG comments on Touch Events, 24 Jan 2013 version

Hi Michael,

Given the information you want to add is non-normative, I prefer your 
suggestion the Web Events spec include a link to this additional 
information, especially since that will facilitate the evolution of the 
information (without having to change the Web Events spec).

How about I can create a wiki document under WebEvents' wiki <>? If you 
don't like that idea, then we can use whatever you prefer.

Also, can you please give us a rough estimate on when you expect to have 
information available?

(After we see your information, we can work together to determine how 
the Web Events should link to it e.g. which section.)

-Thanks, Art


On 2/13/13 12:17 PM, ext Michael Cooper wrote:
> The Protocols and Formats Working Group has reviewed Touch Events 1.0 
> Working Draft of 24 January 2013 
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-touch-events-20130124/ for accessibility 
> issues. The finding of the group is that the events don't inherently 
> impact accessibility in any particular way, but they do define a 
> certain class of input events (touch) that not all users may be able 
> to use. We do not think it is in scope of the Web Events Working Group 
> to address this directly. However, we would like to request that 
> informative content be added to alert implementers and suggest actions 
> they may take. In this comment we outline the general structure of 
> this content; if you accept the proposal in principle, we can work 
> with you on a reasonable timeline to prepare the specific content. We 
> are sending it in this manner in order to make sure to log the comment 
> by the due date, which would not be possible if we take time to 
> develop the complete proposal first.
>
> The issue of events of one type not being available for all users is 
> already widespread with mouse events. For many years now, user agents 
> have provided a workaround of sorts. Applications listen for the 
> "click" event in order to actuate the user interface. As long as the 
> control is focusable, keyboard users can navigate to the control and 
> press the Enter key. The user agent actually generates a click event 
> in response to this key action, so the web application requires no 
> special coding to handle keyboard users, and accessibility of the 
> application is maintained.
>
> The PFWG believes this type of solution could be applied to Touch 
> events as well. The proposal is to provide a table that maps other 
> hardware events (particularly keyboard events, but possibly others) to 
> Touch events. User agents that implement this mapping would fire the 
> appropriate Touch event whenever the other hardware event was 
> received. This would provide transparent accessibility support for web 
> applications.
>
> The proposal is that this be *informative* content only, perhaps in an 
> appendix or other location of your choice. User agents would not be 
> required to implement this mapping, and the timeline of progression to 
> Recommendation should not be affected. The accessibility community 
> would separately advocate with user agent developers that these 
> mappings be implemented.
>
> The specific mapping suggestions require further exploration. Not all 
> Touch events would have a corollary on other input types. But it 
> should be possible to come up with a small set of mappings that allows 
> the majority of applications that use Touch Events to be accessible 
> without special coding.
>
> For the PFWG,
> Michael Cooper
>
> -- 
>
> Michael Cooper
> Web Accessibility Specialist
> World Wide Web Consortium, Web Accessibility Initiative
> E-mail cooper@w3.org <mailto:cooper@w3.org>
> Information Page <http://www.w3.org/People/cooper/>
>

Received on Friday, 15 February 2013 14:16:00 UTC