Re: Documents now public

Tom,

I was not involved in the announcement, but here is new text being reviewed
for placement on the public PF web site:

Dynamic Web Content Accessibility Accessibility Work effort:


The working group has a focused effort to fix the accessibility of Rich
Internet web Applications (RIAs). The inaccessibility of these applications
has often been categorized as "JavaScript Accessibility Problem." These
applications make use of script to repurpose existing markup to create new
application widgets not defined by the markup. The accessibility of today's
markup, such as XHTML and HTML, depends on the mixture of content and
presentation. The accessibility problem stems from the markup not providing
the capability for the page author to provide additional accessibility Meta
data which can be mapped by the browser to platform accessibility APIs when
repurposing occurs. The problem surfaces in many other circumstances
ranging from when HTML uses the <table> element for layout to the SVG usage
of primitive drawing markup to create complex graphics that imply richer
semantics. Solving the problem involves the use of cross-cutting
technologies whose principles may be used for accessibility reform across
many industry content renderable markups. Finally, these specifications are
intended to support XHTML markup rendered in today's desktop browsers.
Three W3C WAI PF working drafts involved are described here:


Dynamic Accessible Web Content Roadmap
      This roadmap that describes the problem, what W3C specfications will
      be used to correct the problem, and the timeline for the new
      specifications.
Role Taxonomy for Accessible Adaptable Applications
      This specification defines an RDF taxonomy of roles which descibe
      custom GUI widgets and document structure which may be used to
      support platform accessibility APIs. Roles encapsulate semantic
      information which may be use to help: user agents support assistive
      technologies; authoring tools enforce accessibility, and assistive
      technologies discover new custom objects and how to interoperate with
      them.
States and Properties Module
      This specification defines attributes that provide XML languages with
      the ability to add extra information about the behavior of an
      element. States and Adaptable Properties are mapped to accessibility
      frameworks (such as a screen reader) that use this information to
      provide alternative access solutions. Similarly state and author
      properties can be used to dynamically change the rendering of content
      using different style sheet properties. The result is to provide an
      interoperable way for associating behaviors with document-level
      markup. Additionally, this specificaton includes markup to fix
      keyboard focus problems with today's XHTML 1.X markup.

The roadmap points to the new specifications which support the roadmap.
They are summarized in section 6.1. The rest of the document should show
the tie in.

Rich


Rich Schwerdtfeger
Distinguished Engineer, SWG Accessibility Architect/Strategist
Emerging Technologies
Chair, IBM Accessibility Architecture Review  Board
blog: http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/dw_blog.jspa?blog=441
schwer@us.ibm.com, Phone: 512-838-4593,T/L: 678-4593, mobile: 512-876-9689

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.",
Frost



                                                                           
             Tom Worthington                                               
             <Tom.Worthington@                                             
             tomw.net.au>                                               To 
             Sent by:                  Al Gilman                           
             wai-xtech-request         <Alfred.S.Gilman@IEEE.org>          
             @w3.org                                                    cc 
                                       DCMI Accessibility Group            
                                       <DC-ACCESSIBILITY@JISCMAIL.AC.UK>,  
             10/04/2005 10:54          wai-xtech@w3.org                    
             PM                                                    Subject 
                                       Re: Documents now public            
                                                                           
             Please respond to                                             
              Tom Worthington                                              
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           





At 02:27 AM 10/5/2005, Al Gilman wrote:
>... As Rich said, it's best to start with the Roadmap. ...

Thanks. I guess "Rich" is Richard Schwerdtfeger and "the Roadmap" is his
"Dynamic Accessible Web Content Roadmap", W3C Working Draft, September 23,
2005 <http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/roadmap/>.

>... In their present state, our drafts *may* be penetrable  by people who,

>like your students, have already bruised their knuckles on another such
>application. ... And if you can interest your students in spending some
>time with these materials, we would very much like to hear from them.

My students are at the top university in Australia, in a building with some

of the cleverest IT people in the world (they go on to places like IBM
research labs, Google and Microsoft Research Labs). But I have a lot of
trouble convincing them that accessibility is worthy of their attention.
The roadmap will help as it clearly explains what it wants to do and then
has some technical stuff they will like.

But I have mostly given up trying to convince anyone that accessibility is
worth doing because it will help those with a disability. I give a homily
on accessibility to the undergraduate and postgraduate students
<http://www.tomw.net.au/2005/wd/testing.html>. But it is far more effective

when dealing with business people to say it will enable applications to
work on mobile devices used by high net worth customers. Even with a
humanitarian application for emergency management I have suggested using
accessibility features for efficiency
<http://www.tomw.net.au/2005/wd/sahana.html>.

In the case of the researchers and students, I could see them being
interested in a flexible user interface for the robot submarines tested in
a tank outside my window <http://nieis.anu.edu.au/news/news_smallsub.html>
or for the swarms of robot aircraft down the road at the Defence Department

<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2005/09/last-day-of-searcc-2005-in-sydney.html
>.

Now I know of the roadmap I can tell them about it. But you need to tell us

all clearly what you are doing and point us to the useful documents.



Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington@tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                http://www.tomw.net.au/
Director, ACS Communications Tech Board   http://www.acs.org.au/ctb/
Visiting Fellow, ANU      Blog: http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/atom.xml