Sounds and checkpoint 11.1

Checkpoint 11.1 says Use W3C technologies when they are available and
appropriate for a task and use the latest versions when supported.

In attempting to add sound to something, there are lots of questions that
arise. It seems to me difficult to make them work - options in HTML include
using embed and bgsound which are widely supported but are not W3C
technologies, or using object which is less widely supported (still!).

SMIL allows sound to be added. The question then is whether it can be used to
support earcons in a navigation table that is based on images such as
http://www.peepo.com or not. I can't figure out how to do this in SMIL 1.0,
which I think is widely available.

It is possible to use SVG and the Adobe plugin, but this also relies on
adobe-specific extensions. Testing Adobe's own demonstration file it worked
in Amaya (but not in iCab enabled for SVG using Adobe's own plugin - they
have some stupid browser-sniffing script they use <sigh/>) without the sound
(Amaya didn't support the extended namespace).

So are W3C base markup languages sufficient or not? Clearly there is no W3C
work in the area of sound formats themselves, so there is a requirement that
some other format be used for the encoding of the sound. Where should peopole
diverge from the W3C materials we have available?

(This comes from a thread on the interest group:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ig/2001JulSep/0273 and resolution
should be returned to that thread when we get there)

cheers

Charles

-- 
Charles McCathieNevile    http://www.w3.org/People/Charles  phone: +61 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative     http://www.w3.org/WAI    fax: +1 617 258 5999
Location: 21 Mitchell street FOOTSCRAY Vic 3011, Australia
(or W3C INRIA, Route des Lucioles, BP 93, 06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France)

Received on Saturday, 28 July 2001 23:49:06 UTC