RE: Exclusion of Visual Readers with Low Vision form WCAG 2.0 and the 508 Revise

Jonathan Avila wrote:
> 
> [John wrote] Access to "change these components" is clearly defined and
> mandated in UAAG
> 
> I think Wayne's concern is that governments are using WCAG 2 as a model
> but not considering UAAG.   WCAG 2 does not address certain areas such
> as
> operating systems, some software, telecommunications, etc. Governments
> need to address a more comprehensive plan for accessibility that
> includes
> items such as those in Section 508 and UAAG and not just harmonization
> with WCAG 2.

Fair point. This however is not the role of W3C, WAI or WCAG, and
lambasting the W3C because WCAG isn't UAAG serves little purpose other
than to cast blame on the wrong actors. Beat up on the politicians, not
the hard-working volunteers who shoulder the bulk of the WAI efforts.
 

> 
> [John wrote] Section 508 (refresh), Chapter 4, Section 409.2:
> "User Preferences.   Applications shall provide a mode of operation
> that
> uses user preferences for platform settings for color, contrast, font
> type, font size, and focus cursor."
> 
> Section 508 has already had this language but programs such as Acrobat
> that are in every government agency do not allow for some of the
> settings.

This is not the W3C's fault. This is not WCAG's fault, it isn't even
UAAG's fault, as none of these documents can force anyone to do anything.
Laws can, specs can't.


> Theoretically a PDF application could pull the tagged structure out of a
> document and generate such an accessible view but I'm not aware of one.
> The PDF/3 specification that allows for XML structure hopefully will
> facilitate this.    EPUB seems to be a good direction toward this type
> of access but it once again does not address these issues.

The specification, or the existing tools? This again traces back to
legislation and enforcement, two critical components in the total picture
that lie outside of the W3C's purview. 


> 
> I believe part of Wayne's frustration may be aimed at these issues with
> current PDF viewers on the market.

Then with all due respect, he should turn that anger and frustration onto
those current PDF viewers and their developers.  I'm frustrated at the
cost of gasoline, but I don't blame the mechanics who do my auto tune-ups,
nor the sales reps at the local car dealership.

 
> A big area that I think is currently lacking is coordination between
user
> agents and ARIA HTML 5.  For example,  indication of programmatic focus
> including location for the aria-activedescendant attribute.  User agents
> need to render that that element as the active element with programmatic
> focus and exposure of location coordinates of that element to assist
> proper tracking for screen magnification software.  In my opinion this
> needs to be mapped into MSAA for Windows and whatever other
accessibility
> APIs exist for the given platform.  Perhaps this is something that can
> be addressed in UAAG 2.0.


Jonathan, I am not sure if the ARIA WG or the UAAG WG are monitoring this
issue or not. Have you discussed this with them previously? ARIA 1 is
currently in Candidate Recommendation (but PFWG is already talking about
ARIA.next) and UAAG 2 are currently soliciting comments on the Working
Draft, and if you've not spoken up previously, now is the time.

ARIA: public-pfwg-comments@w3.org
UAAG: public-uaag2-comments@w3.org 

Cheers!

JF

Received on Wednesday, 19 October 2011 03:17:34 UTC