- From: Lachlan Hunt <lachlan.hunt@lachy.id.au>
- Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 16:31:52 +1000
- To: "Patrick H. Lauke" <redux@splintered.co.uk>
- CC: public-html@w3.org, wai-xtech@w3.org
Patrick H. Lauke wrote: > Lachlan Hunt wrote: >> Consider how difficult it is for a user to access the alternative >> content nested within <object>. AFAIK, the only way to do so in most >> graphical browsers is to view the source. So, if an audio file was >> embedded using <object> (or <audio>) and the transcript was nested >> within, that would make it difficult for users without assistive >> technology to access it. > > But, unless I'm mistaken, no current UA even renders HTML5's <audio> and > <video>, There is an experimental implementation of <video> with only basic functionality in a preview release of Opera, but nothing really substantial in a shipped version of any browser. > so comparing how they currently handle HTML4's <object> may not > be all that relevant. And if the spec stated that UAs need to handle > fallback content a certain way (possibly making reference to UAAG 1.0 in > passing as well) that gives users control, would that be a likely step > in the right direction? Or is the historically flaky implementation of > <object> going to kill this idea off right from the get-go? We should certainly take past experience into account, especially where there are similarities with new features. There are known problems with the object fallback mechanism in all the major browsers, and it would be silly to ignore that evidence. We should investigate what has caused these problems in the past and try to understand why, so that we don't repeat the same mistakes. We should also seriously consider the usability impact of introducing a radically new way of accessing content. It might sound like a good idea for a UA to give the user full control to be able to switch between an object and its alternative, but that is a long way from having a usable product that users understand and are comfortable with. Anything that requires a major paradigm shift for users is unlikely to succeed. -- Lachlan Hunt http://lachy.id.au/
Received on Sunday, 29 July 2007 06:32:10 UTC