- From: Jason White <jasonw@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU>
- Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 09:09:42 +1000 (AEST)
- To: WAI HC Working Group <w3c-wai-hc@w3.org>
Firstly, I would like to reiterate Al's comment, that it is important for the user to have ultimate control over the presentation of a document. Any proposal which would limit the user's ability to suppress the audio rendering of a particular part of the document is therefore completely unacceptable. I also agree that speech input is a function of the user agent and, for the most part, need not be accommodated by the HTML markup. It is important to note in this regard that the author of the document does not know which language is being used for speech input. Some users, for example, may be acquainted with several languages, but would configure their speech recognition software to accept input in their preferred language, which may not be the language of the document. The idea of associating a voice file with a document may be useful, and it adds further support to Al's linking proposal. However, such a capability is of course open to abuse: if the audio file serves to add content, rather than to replicate information that is already given in the HTML document, then users with hearing impairments are seriously disadvantaged.
Received on Wednesday, 22 October 1997 19:10:07 UTC