W3C

- DRAFT -

SVG Accessibility Task Force Teleconference
30 Mar 2016

Agenda

See also: IRC log

Attendees

Present
AmeliaBR, Joanmarie_Diggs, sh, shepazu, Rich_Schwerdtfeger
Regrets
Chair
fesch
Scribe
AmeliaBR

Contents


<fesch> regrets Leone

<scribe> scribe: AmeliaBR

does <title> override role=none/presentation

FE: Presentation is not a "golden hammer", but we have some flexibility when its native features.

ABR: Yes, ARIA says global aria attributes cancel out role=none/presentation, but nothing currently about native alternative text.

<joanie> https://rawgit.com/w3c/aria/master/svg-aam/svg-aam.html#include_elements

<Zakim> joanie, you wanted to ask if there is a corresponding SVG AAM spec change in order

ABR: presentation role takes precedence over native semantics, but global aria attributes and focus can cancel it

JD: Looking at the current spec, it currently does not have that exception. 5.1.2 as currently stated does not agree with the consensus from the discussion.

ABR: Yes, that section needs to be re-written based on the discussion from yesterday to explain how to deal with conflicts. So we can integrate whatever we decide today.

DS: I don't have strong preference either way, but whatever decision needs to be stated in a way that indicates its an open issue. Keep dialogue open for feedback from authors & implementers.
... Don't know what works in practice, need feedback from a wider audience.

<Zakim> joanie, you wanted to add that if there is nothing special is done, the default WebKit code does not include it.

JD: I discovered this after removing the code I'd recently added & re-running tests. I was surprised the <title> didn't override role=presentation based on current behavior.
... So I think it's best to do it this way: let presentation take control. Don't ask implementers to change things and then take it out.

FE: I had originally wanted a "golden hammer" to make it easy for authors. But just giving it power over title & desc doesn't really help authors because it doesn't have power elsewhere.

DS: If you do something the right way, with native semantics, it should work. But I don't know if there are any use cases for having a title and a role=presentation.
... Could there be a use to have a drill-down feature?

FE: We can discuss this more on the list, maybe?

ABR: To follow on Doug's comment, I wouldn't want to overload role=presentation for added features like drill-down. Treat this as an authoring conflict, while recognizing that it is something that may come up when authors are using <title> for its tooltip effects.

DS: We can resolve for now, but agree to add it as an issue in the spec.

Running the SVG-AAM tests for WebKit

JD: Fred & I have been working through the tests, but I don't know if anyone else has been discussing them in detail.
... In WebKit, any new feature or bugfix requires a "layout test". So as I add the SVG-AAM features to WebKit, I've got to add tests to match.
... I've therefore been trying to re-use Fred's tests as much as possible.

<joanie> https://trac.webkit.org/browser/trunk/LayoutTests/accessibility/w3c-svg-name-calculation.html#L1

JD: But the layout test format is WebKit specific, and may not always match what you use for W3C in general.

<joanie> https://www.w3.org/wiki/SVG_Accessibility/Testing/Test_Assertions_with_Tables#Simple_name_testable_statements

JD: compare these tests. The markup and the scripts are different, but the actual tests are quite similar.
... I've started adding the name of the test and the test case to the wiki. The numbers aren't always consecutive, but most of them match up.

DS: What's your role in WebKit? How do these changes get integrated?

JD: I'm a regular contributor to WebKit. These changes have been committed. They're not integrated in Safari yet, but they are in the core codebase.

<joanie> https://trac.webkit.org/browser/trunk/LayoutTests/platform/mac/accessibility/w3c-svg-name-calculation-expected.txt#L1

<joanie> https://trac.webkit.org/browser/trunk/LayoutTests/platform/gtk/accessibility/w3c-svg-name-calculation-expected.txt#L1

JD: I haven't yet added the links to results in the wiki, but here are them (first link on Mac, 2nd on Linux)

<joanie> https://www.w3.org/wiki/SVG_Accessibility/Testing/Test_Assertions_with_Tables#Simple_name_testable_statements

JD: The test output is the expected name, and then all the WebKit-y names for the different API fields. Linux uses different field names, but the bug testing uses the Apple names, so need to mentally translate.

<joanie> https://trac.webkit.org/browser/trunk/LayoutTests/platform/gtk/accessibility/w3c-svg-name-calculation-expected.txt#L1

JD: compare with Fred's table of the expected output on each platform. This is based on what you would see if you manually ran the accessibility inspector. In Linux, the names are different but the values are the same.
... The benefit of the WebKit layout tests is that they are run automatically every time the code is changed.
... If this is acceptable to meet the W3C CR testing requirements, then we don't have to do nearly as much manual testing.

DS: Automated testing is great. Need to confirm that they integrate with our test framework, but I think we've integrated tests from WebKit previously. I'll check with colleagues.

JD: As I understand, accessibility testing can't be automated easily with the W3C test harness, because it depends on the contents of the accessibility tree, which is not exposed back to website scripts.
... It would be great if you could, but I don't think you currently can.
... We don't expose the accessible object, accessible name, etc., to the DOM.

RS: So how is Cynthia doing it?

JD: She has her workaround, just like I do. Extra scripts with python and such. But it's not part of the W3C testing harness.

RS: So we can do it, just not with the harness?

JD: But it's preferred to have them automated, so you don't need to open up the accessibility inspector manually.
... Versus the WebKit layout tests run every time you build the browser from source code.

RS: But what about a generic accessibility inspector software that uses the accessibility API to inspect?

JD: That's another option. But using the existing W3C test harness not currently an option. And if we use the accessibility API approach, then we are not re-using the WebKit layout tests.

RS: Did you create a re-usable JSON format of expected results?

JD: I did not.

FE: I create JSON as part of compiling the tables of expected results for each platform.

RS: So from this list of expected results, you should be able to convert that to the accessibility API calls to extract the relevant values & relationships?
... Once you have that ability to convert the expected results to interface tests, then we should be able to automate on any platform. But you need those scripts.

FE: As I understand: the layout tests are good, but we're not going to be using them directly for CR. Need something comparable for all platforms.

RS: Joanie, are your tests built from the JSON using scripts?

JD: Not currently, it was a proof-of-concept thing.

FE: So we wouldn't use Joanie's tests at all?

RS: Would they be able to test all platforms?

JD: They would test Mac & Linux. And the tests are run automatically every time the software is built. So I can verify my implementations & any new changes.

RS: So the test launches the browsers, loads the files & runs all the tests internally?

JD: Yes.

RS: It would be nice if we could do that as a plug-in in Firefox.

JD: Possibly. I don't know Firefox details. For WebKit, we have additional code that makes all the accessibility API calls. This is important because we don't want to test the internal accessibility layer, we need to test the exposed values.
... I think Firefox's tests work the same as far as running automatically at every build. But I don't know if they can access the exposed layer in the API.

RS: I think we need to look into this. If we can do things this way, working at the API layer without needing to dive down to deep.
... If there's a way in Firefox to add a plug-in to access this information, if it's exposing it, that would be useful.

JD: There's a barrier to entry for both approaches. You need familiarity with the tools to write the tests, but running them is straightforward.
... whether you use them for CR testing or not, I will still be using these internally. So please don't remove that field from the wiki.

FE: We're out of time. I also think this is an issue beyond SVG. We need coordination with the rest of ARIA.

ABR: Joanie, would you be able to keep your test suite easily updated, if Fred is able to provide eg JSON of expected results?

JD: Yes and no. Changes to layout tests still need to be code-reviewed in WebKit. So it wouldn't be super-fast to update.
... If changes are in logical chunks, it can happen.

ABR: It sounds like, no matter what, we're going to need custom testing software for each platform. But so long as they all rely on the same underlying list of tests and expected results I think that's OK.
... but as Fred said, we need to discuss further, for ARIA testing in general not just SVG.

JD: And maybe it will end up that the other approach is better, and the layout tests won't be used directly.

RS: I really hope we can use the plug-in approach, using the new extension model that works for both Gecko & Chrome. Although there would still need to be platform-specific code.

JD: There are lots of platform-specific complications. We can't just test the core code using the internal model.

Summary of Action Items

Summary of Resolutions

[End of minutes]

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Guessing input format: RRSAgent_Text_Format (score 1.00)

Found Scribe: AmeliaBR
Inferring ScribeNick: AmeliaBR
Present: AmeliaBR Joanmarie_Diggs sh shepazu Rich_Schwerdtfeger
Agenda: https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-svg-a11y/2016Mar/0052.html
Found Date: 30 Mar 2016
Guessing minutes URL: http://www.w3.org/2016/03/30-svg-a11y-minutes.html
People with action items: 

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