[Bug 8644] New: Fallback mechanism for embedd content

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=8644

           Summary: Fallback mechanism for embedd content
           Product: HTML WG
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: All
               URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/text-level-
                    semantics.html#embedded-content-1
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Keywords: a11y
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: HTML5 spec bugs
        AssignedTo: dave.null@w3.org
        ReportedBy: gez.lemon@gmail.com
         QAContact: public-html-bugzilla@w3.org
                CC: ian@hixie.ch, mike@w3.org, public-html@w3.org, public-
                    html-a11y@w3.org


1.  This section includes a number of mechanisms for embedding content, but the
<img> and <area> elements are the only elements that include a specific
mechanism for providing a short text alternatives (@alt). The need for a
mechanism to include a short text alternative (label) for the embedded content
is no different for elements such as embed, video, audio, canvas, MathML and
SVG. Since the ability for the embedded content to provide a text alternative
directly will vary across formats, content types and authoring practices, HTML5
should include support for the alt attribute or a similar mechanism (ex.
aria-labelledby) for each of these elements and the conformance requirements
regarding its presence should be consistent for each element.

2. From an accessibility perspective, HTML5 should describe a model for
fallback content that allows the user to choose from any available fallbacks.
The problem with specifying that fallback content should only be "used when an
external resource cannot be used", is that it puts users in the position of
having to guess about the accessibility of the content on different sites and
to reconfigure their browser to find out if they guessed correctly. For
example, an author on one site might embed captioned video that requires a
plugin in order to be rendered with no fallback while an author on a second
site uses the same plugin to include a video, omits captions, but provides
fallback content that includes a text transcript of the video. The problem is
that a deaf user who has the required plugin installed will get the captions on
the first site, but will likely miss that there's no fallback on the second
site entirely. Similarly, if the same user does not have the required plugin
(or has turned it off so that they could access fallback content on another
site), they end up getting nothing on site 1 and the fallback content on site
2.


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Received on Tuesday, 5 January 2010 10:42:06 UTC