XR and Emerging Technologies
The following are draft user needs that could be abstracted into producing both methods and guidelines for Silver.
They may also inform future requirements for techniques in either WCAG 2.x/Silver.
User Need 1.1 User ID and Status
Based on both:
Users of any platform immersive, gaming or telecoms need to be identifiable - as well as their status such as muted, or talking, present etc.
This is essentially some kind of polling mechanism that could be linked with messaging via system level alerts and notifications?
User Need 1.2 Routing and communication channel control
Based on - https://www.w3.org/TR/raur/#routing-and-communication-channel-control
Users of immersive augmented environments need to be able to route and configure their audio inputs and outputs to multiple devices. In that many users can choose to turn of images and use only text if they choose, or modify or zoom an interface, users should able to route inputs and outputs to where they choose in formats that they need. It is arguable that being able to customise audio routing preferences is the same.
NOTE: This may have deeper architectural requirements such as access to browser plumbing.
User Need 1.3 Distinguishing sent and received messages in XR
Based on - https://www.w3.org/TR/raur/#distinguishing-sent-and-received-text-with-rtt
Deaf and hard of hearing users need to able to tell the difference between sent and received messages when communicating in XR environments with RTT.
User Need 1.4 Support Internet relay chat (IRC) style interfaces in XR
Based on - https://www.w3.org/TR/raur/#internet-relay-chat-irc-style-interfaces-required-by-blind-users
Many blind users may not benefit directly from RTT type interfaces just to issues with synthesised speak output. Therefore traditional IRC type chat interfaces should be available.