- From: Jim Allan <jimallan@tsbvi.edu>
- Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 10:56:07 -0600
- To: david.bolter@gmail.com, Charles McCathieNevile <chaals@opera.com>, Sean.Hayes@microsoft.com, eric.carlson@apple.com
- Cc: WAI-ua <w3c-wai-ua@w3.org>, public-html-a11y@w3.org
Gentlemen, The UAWG was discussing how to override autoplay in the browser in response to a topic in HTML-A11Y telecon [1] last week We have a success criteria: 2.9.2 Time-Based Media Load-Only: The user can load time-based media content such that the first frame is displayed (if video), but the content is not played until explicit user request. (Level A) Essentially, autoplay is off, until the user activates 'play' The question is, a user agent has implemented the ability to turn off autoplay (as required by UAAG20), but if a script implements autoplay directly, whose responsibility is it to make sure that autoplay doesn't happen? Greg Lowney suggested that whether autoplay is enabled or disabled in browser, user preferences should be made programmatically available to scripts as well as extensions and plug-ins, so that they can follow the user preference. Is this possible? If possible, will it ever be done? Jim Allan asked if the browser could simply refuse to play media when a script attempts to start it on load. This is assuming that the browser plays the video natively, and the script calls a UA function that starts the video. But, Greg's not sure that the user agent can distinguish scripted autostart from attempts to start the media in response to some explicit user request. Providing a way for the script to follow the browser's user preference settings also has the benefit of (if implemented correctly) stopping autoplay when done using media other than the HTML5 native media (e.g. flash). Are our assumptions/musings correct? Please enlighten us as to how this really works in a user agent. 1. http://www.w3.org/2011/01/19-html-a11y-minutes.html -- Jim Allan, Accessibility Coordinator & Webmaster Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired 1100 W. 45th St., Austin, Texas 78756 voice 512.206.9315 fax: 512.206.9264 http://www.tsbvi.edu/ "We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." McLuhan, 1964
Received on Thursday, 27 January 2011 16:57:40 UTC