Internationalization Comments on XHTML Access
Version reviewed: http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/2008/WD-xhtml-access-20080526/
Lead reviewer and date of initial review: Richard Ishida, jun 2008
Subject lead in: [XHTML Access]
These are comments on behalf of the Internationalization Core WG, unless otherwise stated. The "Owner" column indicates who has been assigned the responsibility of tracking discussions on a given comment.
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| ID | Location | Subject | Comment | Owner | Ed. / Subs. |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3.1.2 | Use of terms key and access key |
The term 'access key' seems to be used to refer to the value of the key attribute in one part of this section, and to a key on a physical keyboard in other places. The word 'key' is also used in ways that are not clearly tied down, especially in light of the above. Please clearly define what is meant when these terms are used and use them consistently. |
RI | E | ||
| 2 | 3.1.2 | Keycode or character |
It isn't clear that this section has taken into account the potential difference between key codes and the characters that may result from a key press on a given keyboard. It seems to assume that the character on a key cap == the key code identifier == the character produced by pressing that key == the character that is the value of the key attribute. This is not always the case when you take into account a variety of keyboards serving various different locales. Please provide some precision as to how a key attribute value is associated with keyboard events. (Note that this has proved to be a difficult topic for the specification of DOM3 keyboard events.) |
RI | S | ||
| 3 | 3.1.2 | Reference to accesskey |
We were surprised to find no reference to the existing accesskey markup, and its relationship to the markup described here. |
RI | E | ||
| 4 | 3.1.2 | Rendering by user agent |
"The rendering of access keys depends on the user agent. We recommend that authors include the access key character in label text or wherever the access key is to apply. If the user agent can recognize that the currently mapped access key character appears in the label text of the element to which it is mapped, then the user agent may render the character in such a way as to emphasize its role as the access key and distinguish it from other characters (e.g., by underlining it)." This is likely to be problematic for non-Western text. For example, in scripts that combine character into complex shapes (such as Hindi/Devanagari or Urdu/Nastaliq) it can be difficult to isolate a specific character. For such scripts it is likely to be better to give the control to the author when identifying the character to highlight. In some cases the author may include the access key in parentheses after the label, in others they may prefer to highlight a letter in the label itself. |
RI | S | ||
| 5 | General | Examples and explanations |
Phrasing such as 'assigning an accessibility mapping' or 'the document focus or an inspection focus' are not very clear, and there is no clarification or links to definitions. A few more examples, and explanations of how they affect the user experience (not just code snippets), would also be welcome. |
RI | E |