Re: OBJECT and map

to follow up on what Daniel Dardailler said:

> 
> An issue has come up in the HTML WG and I'd like to get
> your input.
> 
> The OBJECT tag, which embeds multimedia in HTML (Java, ActiveX,
> ShockWave, etc, or plain IMG), has recently lost it's client-side
> image map support.
> 
> 
> How do people feel about that ?
> 

I have two suggestions, which I will call the "product" suggestion
and the "process" suggestion.

PRODUCT:

I think we should follow Murray's advice.  We need to explain the
accessibility scenario where we thought we wanted a USEMAP on OBJECT
so they can grasp the accessibility issue.  What we really need
is the capability for more general conditional document content
than a simple text string.  We want at least a conditional hyperlink.

If they come back and give us an IF-THEN-ELSE control-flow structure
where you can have an arbitrary DIV in each branch, we will have
enough capability to do better than what we said we wanted to do.

We should do our best to explain the capability required and explain
that USEMAP on OBJECT was the only example we knew about where the
required capability was in Cougar.

PROCESS:

I want the W3C to demonstrate that they are prepared to hold the
HTML WG accountable for what they do to the accessibility
interest.

That is to say, if HTML WG want to remove something that we said
we want, they have to furnish some justification for why they
want to eliminate it, and negotiate with us.

A W3C process where WAI proposes and HTML disposes is simply not
acceptable.

I think the next step is to let the HTML coordination group know
that there is a problem.  The HTML WG has eliminated something
that the WAI WG was counting on.  We should put this on the
agenda for 12 or 13 November, and get someone who understands the
motivation to eliminate it designated to join the w3c-wai-wg
mailing list to discuss options with us.

I don't think that we should modify what we are asking for until
they demonstrate that they are listening.

--
Al Gilman

Received on Friday, 8 August 1997 10:48:20 UTC