Request for advice on <canvas> accessibility

Hi,

It has been suggested that the <canvas> feature in HTML5 should have an 
accessibililty solution more thorough that its current solution, which is 
based on the <object> fallback model.

To this end, I would like to look to the W3C WAI groups for guidance on 
this issue.

To help me understand how <canvas> could be made more accessible, I would 
like to work from a concrete example:

   http://www.whatwg.org/issues/data.html

This page uses <canvas> to generate a graph. Could I ask for advice on 
what the best possible way to make this page universally accessible would 
be? I would like to maintain the same visual presentation, but would like 
to make this page accessible to users of ATs.

Could the WAI groups provide sample pages showing how, in an ideal world, 
with whatever APIs or accessibility hooks need to be made available, the 
page could be made accessible, while still maintaining its current dynamic 
generation and visual presentation?

My goal here is to determine what the best APIs and other technical 
solutions would be to provide good accessibility as automatically as 
possible for people using <canvas>. I hope the combined accessibility 
expertise of the WAI groups will be able to design a solution for this 
that we can use in HTML5.

I am at a loss personally as to how to do this. Any help would be greatly 
appreciated on this issue.

Cheers,
-- 
Ian Hickson

Received on Friday, 26 June 2009 22:54:19 UTC