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

Hi Art - it's hard to get a response back from the PFWG this week
because the majority of our participants are at an accessibility
conference. I think your proposed text looks good, but am not sure what
URI we would prefer for the resource. Probably we would either want
something in the PF wiki, i.e., some page under
http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/wiki/, or some static page somewhere, maybe in
datespace, maybe not. I'd like to run that part of the question past the
group.

I expect to be able to discuss this with the PFWG next week. Will it
work for you to proceed on the basis of the PFWG general acceptance, and
get the final URI to you mid next week to stick in the document? If that
still holds you back, I'll make an executive decision and just suggest one.

Michael

Arthur Barstow wrote:
> Hi Michael, PFWG,
>
> We now have sufficient implementations for this spec to advance to
> Proposed Recommendation [ImplReport]. As such, to prevent your comment
> from blocking our PR, we would like to get closure on your comment as
> soon as possible (our LC comment tracking document is [LC-Comments]).
>
> I propose adding the following text as the last paragraph in section 1
> of the spec:
>
> [[
> The Protocols and Formats Working Group created a non-normative
> document that includes a mapping of hardware events (e.g. keyboard
> events) to touch events. For more information see [@TBD].
> ]]
>
> Please feel free to supply your own text rather than the above.
>
> We can use something in WebEvents' URL space (e.g.
> <http://www.w3.org/2010/webevents/wiki/Mapping>) as the URL for the
> reference or we will use whatever URL you give us.
>
> When can we expect you to either accept our text or for you to supply
> your text?
>
> -Thanks, ArtB
>
> [ImplReport] <http://www.w3.org/2010/webevents/wiki/TEv1ImplReport>
> [LC-Comments]
> <http://www.w3.org/2010/webevents/wiki/TouchEvents-LCWD-24-Jan-2013>
>
>
> On 2/15/13 9:15 AM, ext Arthur Barstow wrote:
>> 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/>
>>>
>>
>>
>

-- 

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/>