The SYMM Working Group is developing a technology known as the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Langauge (SMIL). This is a glue format used to compose multimedia presentations out of bits of video, audio, as well as subtitles, captions, etc.
The WAI-PF working group is curently, in cooperation with the SYMM working group, reviewing the SMIL development for accessibility issues. The purpose is to avoid accessibility problems before they start.
A guide to the neighborhood of this review activity is recapitulated at the foot of this page.
This mini-WebSite, the collection of Web pages rooted at <http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/SMIL/>, is a collection of information about requirements and scenarios relating to use of multimedia by people with disabilities or using assistive technology. There are private conversations going on at the same time about technical details of possible SMIL features, but we (the WAI-PF working group) have agreed with SYMM to host a public discussion at the level of usage scenarios and operational requirements so that we can have the benefit of the expertise of the wider WAI-IG community.
We are interested in input that pertains to both thresholds and goals for accessibility. Thresholds are the point at which information becomes utterly unusable. Goals are scenarios that describe how a person with a disability (and possibly using assistive technology) can interact with content normally presented as a multimedia show in a way that is slick and truly convenient.
SMIL will not cure all the ills of the world but it looks to be a big step forward. We need your help to make it a sure-footed step forward, as informed as possible by an understanding of how to provide full and independent access to information for all.
The WAI-PF team working on the SMIL review will update the public pages here with your comments as an operational description of accessible multimedia. We will use this description for reference and motivation in the private discussion of technical details in the developmental specification.
This public area will be kept open and updated to reflect your comments until it is retired on or before the public release of a Proposed Recommendation for SMIL from the W3C.