14 Feb 2000 telecon

Summary of action items and resolutions

Participants

Titles

WC EO raised title of existing tools document and the ERT.

BM someone take to list?

@@LK take title questions for ERT and existing tools document to list for discussion.

Audio equivalents

WC as long as exists somewhere and is obvious.

HB captioning folks would want to add the scene description so more than just text description. There could be background music.

WC we mainly want to check for existence.

@@WC find what WCAG says - need extra file or not? pretty sure a recent discussion, if so post to ER. if not, send to WCAG.

Elements that might have audio

MC embed may have sound we don't know about. SCRIPT might. APPLETs, OBJECTS..they all may have sound.

@@MC propose wording for change to ERT to check for audio on SCRIPT, EMBED, APPLET, and OBJECT elements.

LK tool ping file to do check on header to see what kind of file it is. Propose to add check for sound extension. Add header request to cgi, asp, etc. file formats to see what comes back. Then use here.

WC also use in longdesc?

LK then can run longdesc through the sanity checks. If there is a cgi then you probe the type of file it is returning by doing a header request to get mime type. if audio, then do the check we're discussing - is there a text transcript? this would generalize back to images...no, be an image tag. any cgi can return anything. perhaps even just a .gif. therefore this is a global comment. wherever get a server query, send a header request to get mime type.

@@LK go through document, pick out sections where a probe would apply. Propose a blurb to put in each one.

Action items from last week

Those that are still open:

Checks for NOSCRIPT

GR yes, placement is arbitrary.

LK if look in one part of the page, it changes something in anothe rpart.

GR script at top of the page that changes something at the bottom. the NOSCRIPT would make sense to be at the end of the page where changes occur not where script is defined. like "functionally equivalent."

LK functionally equivalent that is desirable - don't want to crash system, as many scripts do <grin>.

GR if the script adds content or meaning or functionality not available w/out scripts, there needs to be a functional equivalent.

@@GR see which techniques this applies to and propose wording for change to ERT.

Checks for ISMAP

MC I've seen pages where they use both client-side and server-side image maps. An IMG will ahve both usemap and ismap attributes. Since client-side map provided, don't think we need to invoke the "don't use server-side map check."

@@ WC edit ERT to make it clear thatif client-side map and server-side provided then don't need to invoke the "don't use server-side map" check.

Multimedia

GR is this where we tackle Flash?

LK don't understand the relation?

GR the word "multimedia" invokes "Macromedia Flash" in my mind. Many sites front page is a Flash presentation. You have to click on the flash to get into the site.

MC relevant to definition of multimedia. in that example it is providing a programmatic function since you have to use it to follow the link into the site. If the animation has informaiton that is relevant to the site then also trigger the animation technique.

GR programmatic uses - citibank is using animations instead of image maps.

WL people making the Web hard to use.

LK as far as citibank is concerned. it's using it to create pop-down menus. it could have been done using rollovers. link at the bottom, "click here for non-animated site."

/* discussion about flash */

MC the media line up to our senses: visual (animated and non-animated) and auditory. both of those include text. text is a "meta" media. the exception to the definition. multimedia on computers, the implicit definition is one or more of those presented in a synchronized way. video w/soundtrack is multimedia, animation is not.

WL VRML.

MC interactive visual media.

LK also can have text. and sound.

MC viewing text as a meta media, because it is the desired fallback for any media. it should be transformable into other media.

WL multimedia - "I know what it is when i encounter it."

LK perhaps i should w/draw my request to define multimedia, we should replace usage of the word with specifics. e.g., provide audio descriptions for multimedia. a page with an image does not need a sound file. a movie where something is happening...

WC concerned that discussing lots of authoring issues rather than evaluation and repair. although, LK, sounds like you are beginning to head that way.

LK /* reads from WCAG */ this is a WCAG clarification - multimedia is something with a synchronized audio and visual track. This is asking for audio description of visual. Instead of saying multimedia, say, "You have a presentation with synchronized audio and video, provie auditory descripnt." replace multimedia w/what it really means. the translate into a guideline, then when do we give this alert? when we have a multimedia presentation (as defined above) then how do you identify something with syncrhonized audio and video track?

WL checking for any non-verbal checkpoint?

LK does not apply to animated .gif. this says auditory description. for animated gif of a bear jumping up and down. if this guidelines applied to that, then have to have a .wav file or something that says "bear jumps up, bear jumps donw." sufficient to have longdesc and alt. what is an example of a multimedia presentation where this applies?

WL is there one that it doesn't apply to? if there any content that is not words, can we put it into words?

LK this is asking for an audio track. this is saying that there is an audio track and that we stick the visual description in the audio track.

WC example of experiment. may not have an audio track, but may need a description.

LK but when read, an audio track is implied. so what situation are we talking about?

WC just about any movie.

LK when will the tool give this warning?

WC currently says, "Any multimedia object will generate a user notification" therefore, any video?

LK there must be an audio track and a visual track. 1.3 talks about visual track and audio track. applies only to cases where audio and video track.

WL "if present" after audio so more explicit than implicit.

LK how does a tool know that there a visual track and audio track.

WC it could be Java, SMIL, quicktime, and flash. others...? Could look at SMIL to determine that more than one resource is used...perhaps determine if audio or not.

LK say go through SMIL.

WC /* describes using SMIL to create synthesized auditory descriptions */

LK /* clarifies understanding of what's needed for multimedia - text equivalents all the time */ then we need to only make this warning when we identify more than one track.

WL no, only when there is a visual track.

LK if only an animated gif, then don't need to synchronize the auditory description. the text equivalent is provided.

WC right.

LK do this for all quicktime, SMIL, etc. Probe for more than one track, if possible.

WC anyone play with the formats?

MC quicktime has tracks for certain purposes. pretty sure a tool could grab the info, e.g. - 2 sound tracks. text track could be caption or copyright statement.

@@MC dig up something about identifying tracks in quicktime.

@@WC dig up info on tracks in SMIL.

WC java will call certain method.

MC sometimes it calls external format.

WC if Java ask author.

@@WC look into Flash to determine if can identify various tracks.

@@Resolution: basic check is to ask the author, when feasible check programmatically.

@@WC update ERT to reflect resolution: basic check is to ask the author, when feasible check programmatically.


$Date: 2000/11/08 08:17:43 $ Wendy Chisholm