Amaya - Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines sample implementation

W3C Working Draft 22 October 1999

This version:: http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU/WAI-AUTOOLS-TECHS-19991022/sample-amaya
Latest version:: http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU/WAI-AUTOOLS-TECHS/sample-amaya
Previous version:: http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU/WAI-AUTOOLS-TECHS-19991014/sample-amaya

Editor:: Charles McCathieNevile <charles@w3.org>

Abstract

This document describes how Amaya implements the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines, as an informative aid to developers. The guidelines and checkpoints of that document are included for convenience.

Status of this document

This is a working draft of a supplement for the Techniques for Authoring Tool Accessibility, intended as an informative reference. This document describes the conformance of Amaya release 2.1 to the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines last call draft [WAI-AUTOOLS], and is expected to be updated with each subsequent release of Amaya or the Guidelines. It is inappropriate to refer to this except as "work in progress"

Introduction

This document complements the Techniques for Authoring Tool Accessibility [WAI-AUTOOLS-TECHS]. Although it reproduces the guidelines and checkpoints from that document it is not a normative reference; the techniques introduced here are not required for conformance to the Guidelines. The document describes how Amaya (release version 2.1), a WYSIWYG HTML editing tool produced by the W3C as a test platform for a number of specifications, implements the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines [WAI-AUTOOLS]. The document is intended as an informative aid to developers seeking to implement the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines. These techniques are not necessarily the only way of fulfilling each checkpoint, nor are they necessarily a definitive set of requirements for fulfilling a checkpoint.. It is expected to be updated with each release of Amaya.

How this document is organized.

This document has the same structure as the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines [WAI-AUTOOLS]. Each Guideline and checkpoint from that Document is listed, in the same order, with an explanation of Amaya's techniques for implementing them, or techniques which the development team plans to implement.

Guideline 1. Support accessible authoring practices

1.1 Ensure that the author can produce accessible content in the markup language(s) supported by the tool. [Priority 1]

Amaya implements all of the accessibility features of HTML. The CSS cascade order, an accessibility feature of CSS2, is yet to be completely implemented in Amaya.

1.2 Ensure that the tool preserves all accessibility information during authoring, transformations and conversions. [Priority 1]

The predefined transformations shipped with Amaya preserve all element content. The transformation language allows the preservation of attribute values, but this is not done by all the supplied transformations.

1.3 Ensure that the tool generates markup that conforms to the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines [WAI-WEBCONTENT]. [Relative Priority]

Amaya implements each supported recommendation according to the specifications.

Amaya generates markup that conforms to level-A, and allows the author to generate markup that is triple-A through the user interface.

1.4 Ensure that templates provided by the tool conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines [WAI-WEBCONTENT]. [Relative Priority]

Amaya has just introduced templates, which will be checked for conformance to [WAI-WEBCONTENT].

Guideline 2. Generate standard markup

2.1 Use the latest versions of W3C Recommendations when they are available and appropriate for a task. [Priority 2]

Amaya supports HTML 4.0 [HTML40], XHTML 1.0 [XHTML10] and most of CSS1 [CSS1]. It provides partial support for MathML [MATHML] and some experimental support for Scalable Vector Graphics [SVG].

2.2 Ensure that the tool generates valid markup. [Priority 1]

Amaya implements each language according to the published specifications.

2.3 If markup generated by the tool does not conform to W3C specifications, inform the author. [Priority 3]

Guideline 3. Support the creation of accessible content

3.1 Prompt the author to provide equivalent alternative information (e.g., captions, long descriptions of graphics). [Relative Priority]

Amaya prompts the author to provide alt text for IMG and AREA, and CAPTION for TABLE.

3.2 Help the author create structured content and separate information from its presentation. [Relative Priority]

In future releases Amaya will prompt the author for title for ABBR, ACRONYM, OBJECT, IMG and LABEL for FORM controls. The user interface of Amaya was developed to guide authors to produce structured documents. Style in Amaya is created as a stylesheet.

3.3 Ensure that prepackaged content conforms to [WAI-WEBCONTENT]. [Relative Priority]

Amaya does not provide any clip art

3.4 Do not insert automatically generated or place-holder equivalent alternatives. [Priority 1]

Amaya does not provide default alt text except when copying and pasting images, in which case it copies all attributes with the image.

3.5 Provide a mechanism to manage alternative information for multimedia objects, that retains and offers for editing pre-written or previously linked equivalent alternative information. [Priority 3]

Amaya has no registry of alternate text associated with images, although when an image is copied and pasted its alt and other attributes are copied too.

Guideline 4. Provide methods of checking and correcting inaccessible content

4.1 Check for and alert the author to accessibility problems. [Relative Priority]

Amaya currently checks for validity, but the author can only find warning of invalid markup in the structure view. The team is investigating automating an accessibility check and author notification. Where Amaya detects an error it identifies and highlights the offending code in the structure view, allowing the author to delete it.

4.2 Assist authors in correcting accessibility problems. [Relative Priority]

Amaya currently does not implement this checkpoint. Amaya uses its own internal representation for the document markup that is translated on output. Possible implementation strategy: Where there are errors in a document Amaya could alert the author and warn that the document must be changed, and present the structure view highlighting areas where it has changed the markup, allowing the author to abort the editing session or save the changed version under a new name.

4.3 Allow the author to preserve markup not recognized by the tool. [Priority 2]

Amaya currently does not implement this checkpoint.

4.4 Provide the author with a summary of the document's accessibility status. [Priority 3]

Amaya currently does not implement this checkpoint.

4.5 Allow the author to transform presentation markup that is misused to convey structure into structural markup, and to transform presentation markup that is stylistic into style sheets. [Priority 3]

Amaya provides a language for specifying structure transformations, along with a large number of transformations being included.

Guideline 5. Integrate accessibility solutions into the overall "look and feel"

5.1 Ensure that functionalities related to accessible authoring practices are integrated into the tool. [Priority 2]

In Amaya some accessibility features are part of relevant dialogs. Others, such as longdesc and title attributes must be separately generated by the author. The development team will integrate these into the relevant dialogues.

5.2 Ensure that [WAI-WEBCONTENT] Priority 1 accessible authoring practices are among the most obvious and easily initiated by the author. [Priority 2]

Amaya's user interface guides the author to produce structured content, with presentation elements separated into style sheets. Providing an equivalent alternative is mandatory at the time of inserting some elements.

Guideline 6. Promote accessibility in help and documentation

6.1 Document all features that promote the production of accessible content. [Priority 1]

Amaya help pages for images and image maps [AMAYA-HELP-IMG] include providing text alternatives as part of the process. There is a help page on configuring Amaya, that documents how to change the default keyboard bindings. Some pages need to be updated.

6.2 Ensure that creating accessible content is a naturally integrated part of the documentation, including examples. [Priority 2]

Accessible authoring features are added to the documentation as they are incorporated into Amaya, as part of the normal documentation of the relevant feature.

6.3 In a dedicated section, document all features of the tool that promote the production of accessible content. [Priority 3]

Amaya does not currently implement this checkpoint. An accessibility section will be provided in the next release version.

Guideline 7. Ensure that the authoring tool is accessible to authors with disabilities

7.1 Use all applicable operating system and accessibility standards and conventions (Priority 1 for standards and conventions that are essential to accessibility, Priority 2 for those that are important to accessibility, Priority 3 for those that are beneficial to accessibility). [Priority 1]

Amaya is currently available for two platforms: Unix and Windows. There is some work required on both platforms to bring it into line with conventions, in particular to provide conformance with the User Agent Guidelines [WAI-USERAGENT], and to implement Microsoft Active Accessibility [MSAA]. It is being re-written to take advantage of the improved accessibility support possible in Gnome (it currently uses Motif) in the Unix version. The Documentation is all available online as HTML and has been reviewed to ensure it conforms to [WAI-WEBCONTENT].

7.2 Allow the author to change the presentation within editing views without affecting the document markup. [Priority 1]

Amaya allows the user to create local style sheets, and to enable or disable each style sheet that is linked to a document.

7.3 Allow the author to edit all properties of each element and object in an accessible fashion. [Priority 1]

Amaya allows each attribute to be edited through the menu or through the structure view. Element types can be assigned through the menu system.

7.4 Ensure the editing view allows navigation via the structure of the document in an accessible fashion. [Priority 1]

Amaya provides a structure view, that can be navigated element by element, a Table of Contents view, that allows navigation via the headings, and a links view, that allows sequential navigation via the links in the document. It also provides configurable keyboard navigation of the HTML structure - parent, child, next and previous sibling elements.

7.5 Enable editing of the structure of the document in an accessible fashion. [Priority 2]

Amaya allows the author to select elements (including containers) and cut, copy and paste them with their attributes and properties in any of the formatted, structure and alternate views.

7.6 Allow the author to search within editing views. [Priority 2]

Amaya provides a search function. Because all editing views are synchronized, any search text found will be selected in each of the available views.

References

For the latest version of any W3C specification please consult the list of W3C Technical Reports.

[AMAYA-HELP-IMG]: "Images and Client-side Image Maps" Amaya's Help page for images and image maps.
[CSS1]: "CSS, level 1 Recommendation," B. Bos, H. Wium Lie, eds., 17 December 1996, revised 11 January 1999. This CSS1 Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-CSS1-19990111. The latest version of CSS1 is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1.
[HTML40]: "HTML 4.0 Recommendation," D. Raggett, A. Le Hors, and I. Jacobs, eds., 17 December 1997, revised 24 April 1998. This HTML 4.0 Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-html40-19980424. The latest version of HTML 4.0 is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40.
[MATHML]: "Mathematical Markup Language," P. Ion and R. Miner, eds., 7 April 1998, revised 7 July 1999. This MathML 1.0 Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-MathML-19990707. The latest version of MathML 1.0 is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-MathML.
[MSAA]: "Information for Developers About Microsoft Active Accessibility," Microsoft Corporation.
[SVG]: "Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.0 Specification" (Working Draft), J. Ferraiolo, ed. The latest version of the SVG specification is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG
[WAI-AUTOOLS]: "Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (working draft)," J. Treviranus, J. Richards, I. Jacobs, and C. McCathieNevile eds. The latest version is available at http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU/WAI-AUTOOLS.
[WAI-AUTOOLS-TECHS]: "Techniques for Authoring Tool Accessibility (working draft)," J. Treviranus, J. Richards, I. Jacobs, and C. McCathieNevile eds. The latest version is available at http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU/WAI-AUTOOLS-TECHS.
[WAI-USERAGENT]: "User Agent Accessibility Guidelines," J. Gunderson and I. Jacobs, eds. The latest version of the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines is available at http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/WAI-USERAGENT.
[WAI-WEBCONTENT]: "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0," W. Chisholm, G. Vanderheiden, and I. Jacobs, eds., 5 May 1999. This Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505. The latest version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0" is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/.
[XHTML10]: "XHTML^(TM) 1.0: The Extensible HyperText Markup Language (Working Draft)," S. Pemberton et al. The latest version of XHTML 1.0 is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1.