

Re: Accessibility of Timeline.

From: Charles McCathieNevile <chaals@opera.com>
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 03:31:33 +0200
To: "Karl Dubost" <karl@w3.org>, "David Huynh" <dfhuynh@csail.mit.edu>, www-rdf-calendar@w3.org
Cc: general@simile.mit.edu, w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Message-ID: <op.tcjyivaqwxe0ny@216-99-112.0506.adsl.tele2.no>

On Wed, 12 Jul 2006 02:15:55 +0200, Karl Dubost <karl@w3.org> wrote:

> About the problem I mentionned here
> http://rdfig.xmlhack.com/2006/07/03/2006-07-03.html#1151889629.459723
> Le 4 juil. 06 à 01:48, David Huynh a écrit :
>> Thank you for bringing up these accessibility concerns. I do realize  
>> they are serious, and they plague most AJAX applications, but I have  
>> little expertise in the area of accessibility. So your guidance will be  
>> greatly appreciated. Do you have any specific suggestions on how to  
>> make Timeline more accessible? I'm all ears.
>> As for iCalendar data, is there a Javascript library off-the-shelf that  
>> I can use to parse iCalendar data?
> Timeline is basically a calendar with extra information with annotation.
> Question for WAI: what is the best way to create a calendar in HTML is  
> it a table or a list? I remember in the past I had try to represent that  
> as a list and display it as a table.
> 	http://www.la-grange.net/2003/09/08-calendrier-list
> 	Be careful it's not necessary the best solution, maybe people from WAI  
> could point us to a page explaining the best ways to create a calendar  
> in HTML.
> Given that all data are in the HTML page with a specific set of class  
> names/markup, the javascript modify the DOM to get the beautiful  
> rendering that you have right now.
> 1. Design the HTML markup/structure with accessibility in mind
> 2. Put the data into this structure in real text
> 2. Design the javascript to beautify the data contained in the HTML page

I guess the obvious thing to do is to make the data a well-structured  
table - with headers that allow people to discover what is the meaning for  
a given cell (the problem with tables is knowing, from the middle of it,  
where you are if you can't see the entire table.

If you are very familiar with Excel or similar spreadsheets, think of  
being able to make a group of cells as a fixed feature as you scroll a  
very large table, so you can always see them. A number of accessibility  
applications are like "reading thrtugh a straw" - you only have a tiny bit  
you can see at any one time.

Or imagine reading a very very large table, and the frustration of having  
to run your finger up and down to figure out where a particular cell is.  
This can be done with user javascript, functions built in to assistive  
technologies, or the like, in a cleanly marked-up table.

I don't know of a javascript library for iCalendar (I never looked for  
one) but they probably exist. If not, there is Python and PERL code  
written by Dan Connolly and others for converting to RDFCal that would  
provide a good basis for conversion.



   Charles McCathieNevile, Opera Software: Standards Group
   hablo español  -  je parle français  -  jeg lærer norsk
Received on Wednesday, 12 July 2006 01:31:58 GMT
