DHTML Style guide Discussion

Hello,
 
Over the past several months, a small group of individuals have been
attempting to discuss desired keyboard behaviors for widgets that are
common to dynamic web applications (tree views, tab panels, grid
controls, menus, sliders, etc.). Our goal is to develop a style guide
that the Protocols and Formats group and other entities could leverage
to advance accessibility of dynamic web applications. In an effort to
encourage broader input and to accelerate development of sample widgets
that employ the ARIA guidelines and a general set of keyboard behaviors,
members of the WAI Protocols and Formats working group have recommended
that we move this discussion to the xTech listserve, hence this note. 
 
To kick off our work, we will schedule a call for May 18 at noon EDT.
The conference bridge will be provided in a separate message. The
purpose of the call is to bring all of the interested parties together
for an overview of ongoing work that Becky Gibson (IBM, Stefan Schnabel
(SAP) and others have been doing to implement keyboard support for the
Dojo libraries and proprietary widgets, and to discuss areas of focus
for the group moving forward. The bulk of our dialog will happen via
email.
 
In the meantime, feel free to propose keyboard behaviors for a widget
such as a tab panel so we can test this process and get the ball roling.
Our immediate focus is on desktop browsers. We appreciate that mobile
devices will require consideration, but it is critical to get Phase 1 of
this process off the ground. Since the bulk of the work with ARIA to
date has been focused on Firefox, it makes sense to start by focusing on
the desktop.
 
Please feel free to contact me off the list if you have any questions or
concerns.
 
Best,
 
Tom Wlodkowski
Director of Accessibility, AOL LLC
Phone: 703-265-1999
Email: thomas.wlodkowski@corp.aol.com