1. Introduction

This section is informative.

With the introduction of XHTML Modularization [XHTMLMOD], it became much easier for language designers to assemble specialized markup languages using the XHTML building blocks. XHTML Modularization also defines a methodology for creating new building blocks that will connect easily with one another. The W3C has been using this methodology for the past several years to define a number of new language features with particular focus upon accessibility [WAI] and semantics.

XHTML 1.2 represents the next logical step in that effort, collecting together a number of these features that are now mature and connecting them to XHTML 1.1 [XHTML11] in a way that is backward compatible. The goal of this effort is to demonstrate that these features are usable now, and provide substantial benefit with little or no added cost to content authors.

The major new features in XHTML 1.2 include:

• The "access" element.

  The access element allows the easy connection of areas of a document and facilitates navigation among those areas [ACCESS].

• The "role" attribute.

  The role attribute allows the annotation of content with information about the role it plays in the document. It can be used on its own or in conjunction with the access element to improve accessibility [ROLE]./p>

• The RDFa attributes.

  RDFa allows for the easy, intuitive annotation of XHTML documents with semantic information that is automatically parseable by major search engines [RDFA].