Re: Thoughts towards an accessible <canvas>

As an aside, I am also conscious that whatever the accessibility
solution is , it should support where possible, the existing ways that
users interact with web content such as being able to give focus to HTML
items using UA keystrokes etc, so the /new/ solution isn't such a huge
departure from how existing content is navigated and understood.

There is another issue, and it could be an interesting area of research
(note to self) on how to push these models in a way that is not
disruptive to the user and is felt to be a harmonious evolution from
what went before.

I say this on foot of recently testing an application using a higher
level API, that to me just didn't seem to work as what the user would
expect to be a form control in a HTML interface, was a button, and a
Hypertext link was also a button. In short, I am concerned about the
maintaining the consistency of interaction models that the AT user has
to deal with, as one platform may render or present content differently
to the end user from another. I don't want to see a 'tower of babel' for
how different platforms render content to a user so the user has to
struggle with switching modes across applications. There is a degree of
this already in the wild so if we can lessen and not add to it, all the
better.

I know that these models are to some degree in flux and that the
development of RIAs is pretty new, so this is a work in progress, but I
can see the potential for problems if there is not some application
consistency across multiple platforms. HTML 5 has a certain
responsibility as a host for these platforms and as a platform itself.

Josh

Received on Monday, 23 March 2009 12:57:21 UTC