- From: <waz@easynet.co.uk>
- Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 16:02:10 +0000
- To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
In terms of proposing ASCII representations for things in online communication, without regard to whether or not the 'Air Hug' suggestion is something that will or will not catch on, the following things occurred to me: Things divide into two categories here - the small scale, 'inline' emoticon type ASCII stuff, like smileys, and the large scale graphical extravaganzas of full-blown multi-line ASCII artwork. Neither one is intrinsically accessible, and in terms of the second, I believe that the fact that there are as many accessiblity problems as there are with other kinds of graphics will not stop anyone from using it. ASCII art is out there and will not die - it is a shame that it is in the category of artwork that cannot necessarily be appreciated by all, but perhaps those who cannot see it will come to regard it in the same way that I personally regard opera - I ignore it and save time. The sensible compromise seems to me to suggest that ASCII art should only be used in sites and documents that either relate to ASCII art itself or that have some other kind of intrinsic accessibility issue. A special kind of PRE tag would be good, with an ALT of some sort, and then we could use ASCII art, and would have some way of making it accessible and dealing with the large online legacy of currently inaccessible-due-to-ascii-artwork documents. Meanwhile, the inline emoticons and smileys are so widely distributed online as to have attained, as far as I can tell, the equivalent of language status, in a sense, so it isn't a question of telling people to stop using them, because they wont. Perhaps a solution might be to get screen readers to have a list of the most commonly used ones and translate them accordingly. Such a list could be managed centrally by the WAI, in the form of a simple text file, with each line containing the emoticon and the description seperated by tabs (or something), which screenreaders could update the latest version of on a regular basis and use to translate every :), :-) X| and ~;) they come across. and it should be two way - with an 'insert' smiley option - after all, why shouldn't users of screenreaders be able to use 'winking smiley' or whatever as well as anyone. Maintaining this file would be a reasonable amount of work, I imagine, especially as there may not be universal agreement on the best way to translate each of the major emoticons into each language required, but it seems to me worthwhile in the sense that I feel strongly that solutions to accessibility issues ought to try to bring everyone in to what is already there, not to reduce what is already there to what everyone can already see, as well as making sure that all the new stuff is universally accessible too. I would be happy to help sort this out to the extent that I am able, though I am not an expert on either emoticons or screenreaders - certainly there already exist many listings of 'yer basic online emoticons' - and I thought I'd seen one on the w3c site itself once (though I can't find it right now) - surely it's just a question of finding a list to build a canonical central list from, making sure the suggestion gets directed at screenreader writers and sorting it out with next versions of screenreader software. do no current screenreaders have a 'set this sequence of characters to mean this phrase' option? forwards or backwards? Apologies if this has all been hashed over before. cheers etc., wayne > The idea of an 'Air Hug' may be great but ..those slashes and dots are not > very helpful for those of us who use screen readers. I would not like to see > their use expanded. > Marti > -----Original Message----- > From: Robert C. Neff <rcn@fenix2.dol-esa.gov> > To: 'w3c-wai-ig@w3.org' <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org> > Date: Friday, January 15, 1999 8:27 AM > Subject: suggestion > > >To those who are not familiar with the slang "Air Hug", here is an example. > > If you appreciate what someone has done and this act warrants a hug but > >are separated by distance (short, long, or over the internet) and cannot > >render the hug. You can extend your arms and pretend to hug and say "Air > >Hug" > > > >As I have not seen an ascii representation for an "Air Hug", I propose < > >\../ > and for a "GREAT BIG AIR HUG" < \\..// > > > > >Obviously I am in a good mood! > > > >Rob > >
Received on Friday, 15 January 1999 11:02:44 UTC