- From: John M Slatin <john_slatin@austin.utexas.edu>
- Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2005 21:45:43 -0500
- To: <lguarino@adobe.com>, "Gregg Vanderheiden" <gv@trace.wisc.edu>
- Cc: <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Loretta wrote (in response to Gregg): <blockquote> I think the screen reader access would need to be provided by the user agent for the technology in which you are creating the user interface. So this question would definitely affect baseline </blockquote>Hmmm. I don't think I understand this. There seems to be an implied separation between the user agent and the screen reader that makes the user agent *responsible* somehow for providing screen reader functionality? Am I reading that right? As I undersand it (and I may well be completely off), the mainstream user agent (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.) is a more or less unwitting "host" for the screen reader. JAWS, Window-Eyes, HAL, HPR, etc., all know IE is there; IE doesn't know they're there, however., and could do nothing to help the AT even if it wanted to. (t sends stuff through MSAA, but not in response to the presence of a screen reader-- it communicates with MSAA whether there's a screen reader installed or not, as far as I understand.) So maybe I've wirtten myself into figuring it out a little: Loretta, do you mean that the primary UA is responsible for exposign whatever it knows about your custom interface elements to whatever AT might be on board? And isn't this where UAAG comes in? John "Good design is accessible design." Dr. John M. Slatin, Director Accessibility Institute University of Texas at Austin FAC 248C 1 University Station G9600 Austin, TX 78712 ph 512-495-4288, fax 512-495-4524 email jslatin@mail.utexas.edu Web http://www.utexas.edu/research/accessibility -----Original Message----- From: w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of lguarino@adobe.com Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 8:59 PM To: Gregg Vanderheiden Cc: w3c-wai-gl@w3.org Subject: Re: RE: RE: Impact Analysis for Guideline 4.2 Gregg, you must never sleep! And we definitely need to discuss this topic; thanks for bringing it up. I think the screen reader access would need to be provided by the user agent for the technology in which you are creating the user interface. So this question would definitely affect baseline considerations. We may also be making other assumptions about the "host" user agent, what role it plays in interacting with the user interface created by the content author, and hence about the division of responsibility between the content author and user agent. Loretta
Received on Wednesday, 6 April 2005 02:45:48 UTC