RE: Information on accessibility of XFORMS

Hi all,

WAI has been tracking the Xforms work to make sure that Xforms support
accessibility, and accessibility experts such as TV Raman have been involved
in the working group (he is also a user interface expert) itself.

As far as I know there are no outstanding issues regarding the accessibiltiy
of Xforms, but WAI has not yet produced any kind of guidelines for using
Xforms, and the best guide would probably be reading the specification.

I don't think Dave's point was that Xforms have some inherent accessibility
problems, but that at the moment there are many users with browsers that are
not capable of handling Xforms (or even XML), so it is not a good idea to use
them now as the only way of specifying interactions. (I could be wrong - this
is Dave's opinion after all and he knows it better <grin/>)

cheers

charles McCN

On Tue, 11 Dec 2001, SHARPE, Ian wrote:

  Hi Jon

  I apologies if you have misunderstood my comments as an attack on Davids
  reply as this
  was and certainly is not the case or my intention.

  I will however confess to being disheartened to hear that we should simply
  ignore XFORMS until some time in the future was really my point. I am
  interested in learning more about XFORMS for  my work as a solution
  architect and believed they would be a door opener being built on XML with
  it's obvious benefits of mainpulating presentation. I just get frustrated
  hearing that we will not be able to do something until.... whenever a new
  product or technology is released. When new offices or communal buildings
  are built they all have to provide access to people with disabilities.  Why
  shouldn't the same be true for new technologies and products? Yes, I know
  this will not always be possible due to the nature of a particular
  technology and practicle due to financial/business constraints but surely we
  should be taking a more positive view?

  If I am asked to build a system involving XFORMS next week, even if it is
  not yet practical to provide accessibility, I would still like to know what
  I can do to maximise the likelyhood of it being accessible whenever it
  becomes feasible. To this end, having found the reference to a liason with
  WAI on the accessibility of XFORMS at:

  http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Forms/

  I would be interested to know the outcome of this liason and whether any
  standards or guidelines have been established please?

  Cheers
  Ian

  I myself am interested in learning more about XFORMS and so would appreciate
  any if there are any guidlines or standards or features designed and built
  into XFORMS to make them accessible?

  Cheers
  Ian

  Are there any guidlines on how to make XFORMS accessible w



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  > I haven't been on this list long but this doesn't sound like the
  > sort of answer I would have expected to this question regardless of
  > how
  > accurate it
  > is.
  [snip]
  Has the
  > accessiblity
  > of XFORMS really not been considered or any guidelines produced? By
  > all means advise people seeking information of potential pitfalls
  > and issues regarding accessibility but surely we want to be taking
  > a more positive approach?

  Well it on what kind of guidelines and accessibility issues Robert is
  looking for. If he is interested in guidelines for current use for
  sites that will be public (rather than closed intranet systems where
  you may know that all users will have XFORMS capable browsers) then
  I'd agree with David's guideline to not use them at all 100%.

  Maybe Robert is looking for accessibility issues on a technology that
  is still emerging which as such would be largely theoretical. That's
  also a valid point of discussion for a list like this, but it doesn't
  invalidate David's advice.

  Question: How easy is it to detect if XFORMS are available and set
  content appropriately?

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-- 
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 Tuesday, 11 December 2001 12:02:34 UTC