Re: Helping Canvas Tag Be Accessible

On Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:49:47 +0200, Anne van Kesteren <annevk@opera.com> wrote:
> If we cannot ensure authors to do the right thing, how can we ensure  
> they'll do the right thing if we add APIs to <canvas> that make it do  
> the same as SVG? That argument doesn't really add up.

To expand on this. Tables for layout is a problem. We do not solve this problem by endorsing using tables for layout and adding elaborative APIs so you can make pages formatted using tables accessible. It is highly unlikely "lazy" authors will pick up on that. You solve it by providing a far better alternative (CSS) that has a ton of advantages over using tables and provides better accessibility without effort.

Now some people experimented with writing a full-fledged editor with <canvas>. That does not mean it is the right thing to do. The obvious solution to that problem is in my opinion not to add difficult APIs to <canvas> that might make some use of it more accessible. There were probably reasons why they used <canvas> to solve their problem and when we understand those reasons we can figure out what a better solution would be. I think that going at it the other way around will only make things accessible if the person/company is under pressure of some law (because of the increase in complexity and cost), which would be a shame.


-- 
Anne van Kesteren
http://annevankesteren.nl/

Received on Thursday, 30 July 2009 15:18:30 UTC