caption positioning & binding example using WAI-ARIA markup

originally posted to w3c-wai-pf (whose archives are member 
confidential), i am resending this example post, which 
references the working draft of WAI-ARIA States and Properties 
dated 30 April 2007, located at:
   http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/Group/adaptable/
at the request of the XHTML2 Working Group:

PROPOSAL:
move the description of the graphic BEFORE the graphic, so that it 
is crystal clear to readers that the caption and illustration are 
bound together;

for an even stronger visual binding, why not place the caption and 
graphic together in a containing box?

this would simply mean reordering the paragraphs surrounding the graphic 
moving the following:

---- begin GJR's proposed change ---
<style type="text/css">
@media screen { 
div.caption-and-img {  border: medium solid #000099; 
     background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; 
     display: inline; padding: .5em; } 
strong { font-weight: bold; }
}
@media aural { 
abbr.spell { speak: spell-out; }
abbr.speak { speak: normal; }
acronym.spell { speak: spell-out; }
acronym.speak { speak: normal; }
strong { pitch-range: 80; stress: 80; richness: 80; }
}
</style>

<!-- ... -->

<div class-"caption-and-img" aaa:labelledby="#img1">
<p aaa:owns="#img1">
<strong>Caption for Figure 1.0</strong>: Figure 1.0 illustrates a 
typical <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Core-20001113/"
>Document Object Model (DOM)</a> [<a href="#ref_DOM">DOM</a>] node. 
Placed within the <acronym class="speak" 
title="Document Object Model (DOM)">DOM</acronym> node and the 
assisstive technology is a box containing the contract provided by 
the user agent to the assistive technology. This data includes 
typical accessibility information found in the accessibility 
<acronym class="spell" title="Application Programming Interface"
>API</acronym> for many of our accessible platforms for <acronymn 
class="speak" title="Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs)">GUIs</acronym> 
(role, state, caret, selection, event notification, parent/child 
information, relationship, and descriptions).
</p>

<p>
<img id="img1" alt="The contract model with accessibility API's" 
src="accessibleelement" style="width: 640px; height: 512px;" />
</p>

<p>
For more information see the <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/aria-roadmap/">Roadmap for Accessible Rich
Internet Applications</a> for the use of <a 
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/aria-role/">roles</a> in making interactive
content accessible.</p>

</div>
---- end of GJR's proposed change  ---

i obviously can't compare and contrast the caption with the graphic -- 
as long as the caption contains ALL of the information conveyed by the 
graphic, preceding the graphic with its descriptor places it in context, 
not just for those who cannot see it, but for those who may have 
difficulty processing that that which follows the image is related to 
the image itself, but who is not using any assisstive technology...

note that, since there is no effective "re-use" mechanism for ABBR or 
ACRONYM i put explicit expansions on uncontained instances of the 
acronym DOM and the abbreviation API -- in the description, as one 
never knows at what point a reader is entering a document, so i 
prefer, until the bugs get worked out of ABBR and ACRONYM expanding 
the first instance of an abbreviated form the first time it appears 
in any section of a document (that is, after every header, div or 
contained caption) the abbreviated form should be expanded at least
once...

my proposal to the HTML WG upon building a reuse mechanism for 
abbreviated forms is archived at:

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2007Apr/0065.html

and again in:

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2007May/0341.html

as for my definition of STRONG using CSS in the STYLE section of my 
example, i cleave unto this practice for the reasons outlined in the 
following:

EM is not synonomous with I, nor STRONG with B:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2007May/0380.html

Author incentives for accessibility:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2007May/1059.html

gregory.
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ABSURDITY, n.  A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with
one's own opinion.      -- Ambrose Bierce, The Devils' Dictionary
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Gregory J. Rosmaita, oedipus@hicom.net AND unagi69@concentric.net
         Camera Obscura: http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/index.html
UBATS: United Blind Advocates for Talking Signs: http://ubats.org
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Received on Wednesday, 11 July 2007 17:19:59 UTC