RE: View Mode Media Feature review

aloha, gottfried!

thanks for your excellent review -- as someone who only uses braille 
as an input medium only, with a braille keyboard, since i don't have 
the tactile sensitivity to read braille i admit to a tendency to give 
braille less attention than i should for -- if i COULD feel braille, i
WOULD use it, as i would VERY much welcome a second input mode (other 
than audio), but now i've performed my mea culpa there are a few 
strands on the topic of braille i want to pick up upon:

the first is a document i've been meaning to ask the WG about -- an 
existing PF document, titled BRAILLE CASCADING STYLE SHEETS: A 
PRELIMINARY REQUIREMENT ANALYSIS, available at

http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/braillecss.html

it is an excellent beginning -- a few parts of which need to be updated, 
particularly where individual products and applications are mentioned 
-- but the document does not have a list of authors (or author) either 
in the document text nor the document source nor is there a date-stamp 
on the document, and i think it was produced in pre-tracker days, so i 
haven't been able to pin down the action item which this document 
fulfilled...

second, on the subject of a pure tactual/tactile object, after analyzing 
a lot of the territory you analyzed in your review, and after 
consultations with those who use braille (in either embossed and/or 
refreshable form) in completion of an action item for the Canvas SubGroup 
of the HTML A11y Task Force, which i had hoped to discuss at the joint 
CSS/PF meeting which we wanted to have early this year, but which we are 
currently trying to schedule for TPAC 2010 in lyons; "retain tactile 
media group; add tactual to media types [HTML A11Y TF ACTION-07]"

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2010Jan/0285.html

the contents of which are reproduced below:

QUOTE
tactile is defined as "capable of, allows for being touched"

tactual is defined as "arising from or due to touch"; 

this definition of "tactual" corresponds with my previous definition of 
tactile media, which -- in order to differentiate it from braille -- i 
defined as material perceived by the sense of touch which requires no 
prior knowledge in order to be correctly perceived; having researched the 
meaning of the terms "tactile" and "tactual", i have concluded that 
"tactual" is the term which best expresses the difference between tactual 
media (which is intended to be conveyed via touch, but which requires no 
previous knowledge and does not represent a natural language), and 
braille, which is a tactile representation of a specific natural language 
(as well as specific natural language instances if the braille device 
being used supports natural language switching on-the-fly); 

CONCLUSION:

"tactile" covers both braile and tactual media, as both convey 
information through the sense of touch; 

therefore, i am proposing that:

1) CSS retain the media group "tactile";
2) CSS add a new media type, "tactual", 

this, i hope, completes HTML Accessibility Task Force ACTION-7
--- END QUOTE ---

this proposal had the support of George Kerscher of DAISY and i 
still hope to bring it forward as an issue-on-our-immediate-radar 
along with other CSS-related issues, including the use of color 
alone to convey the status of the CSS WG's deliverables on:

http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/current-work

a topic which i raised in an email entitled "CSS discussion meta-issue: 
use of color to convey info in Style Activity's web space", which is
archived at:

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-wai-pf/2010JanMar/0140.html

gregory.
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Gregory J. Rosmaita: oedipus@hicom.net
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         Oedipus' Online Complex: http://my.opera.com/oedipus/
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Received on Tuesday, 11 May 2010 20:13:44 UTC