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Re: Browsers handling more widgets nativelyUsing title attribute on non-anchor elements?

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From: Brooks Newton
Date: May 4, 2016 2:27PM

Hi Chaals,

Thank you for taking the time to address my response to Deborah's comment about her desire for browsers to natively handle some of the WAI-ARIA functions. I know most folks on this thread just check in to find answers on "in the weeds" issues like, what browser supports this or what attribute works best for that. However, I think from time to time it's good to raise our heads up out of the weeds and take a gander at some of the bigger questions on the horizon that drive our industry. So thanks for engaging me and the others on this broader topic.

Quick note about my background: I've been a professional in the Web business since 1998, having served worked in the U.S. in public schools, state agencies, private business (Web design agency owner for a dozen years), plus I've worked as the accessibility lead at what was the fourth largest company in the world, as well as having served as principal accessibility consultant for one of the big agencies in the U.S. and have served as a consultant for several other a11y agencies you likely interact with on a daily basis in your committee work. I also make a pretty good pan of baklava. You can ask Birkir about that.

Believe you me, I have a distinct understanding of the complexities involved with getting accessibility to work well for people of all abilities. You can also ask Birkir about that, as well. I certainly don't have as a clear of an understanding as you have, but enough to be conversant in this context. I have significant experience transferring theoretical accessibility knowledge to real people who need real solutions to do their work accessibly in the digital trenches as web/software production team members. That's why I'm shocked that so much emphasis has been placed on site owners and their designers and developers to get accessibility right on their own, without the strongly regulated support from the operating system, user agent, and assistive technology manufacturing industry. Granted, I'm no lawyer. However, I've studied U.S. accessibility regulatory law - and let me tell you, there is a glaring absence of guidance for the software industry, when compared to the burdens that have been unloaded on site/app owners in this country.

I'm sure you have done so, but for others on this thread, take a look at the provisions of the laws that exist in the U.S. and across the globe that govern web accessibility. U.S. laws or laws-in-progress, such as the Twenty First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA), the Section 508 refresh, and the ADA refresh go out of their way to exclude from obligations the three types of software manufacturers that have such as strong bearing on the ultimate accessibility of web/app based digital content. I'm not guessing about this just to have something to say or posturing for Internet karma. I've been on the hook to figure this out for some of the largest organizations on earth. And let me tell you, it is a darn impossible task to achieve accessibility without strong support from the software technology that we all depend on to get web and app data from the ether into our brains. Any others on this thread who feel the same way? Let your voices be heard as a follow-up on this thread. Better yet, let the U.S. Department of Justice know how evolving accessibility law should be handled by directly responding to the call of comments that will soon be forthcoming as part of the new ADA SANPRM.

I've personally trained thousands (no exaggeration) of web site developers, writers, designers, information architects, rich media developers, business owners, quality assurance / user acceptance testers and c-suite executives on the ins and outs of digital accessibility. I have also personally consulted with dozens of the world's biggest companies on how to make their digital content more accessible. I've watched this industry mutate into its current state, which frankly, seems farther from the goal of universal access than it was 10 years ago. The answers being offered by those "in the know" for questions that arise out of frustration at how to make complicated digital interfaces accessible are increasingly technically obfuscated solutions that invariably involve lopping more responsibilities onto the site / app owners plate. Is that really the right direction? Look man, if we can't get site owners to write decent alt text, how are we going to get them to custom script complex interaction patterns, state switching, focus management, etc. for a bevy of JS-powered widgets they thought were plug and play ready to go? As they say in the U.S. South, I think I'm preaching to the choir here...not much need for additional persuasion on this point. These site owners need some help from software manufacturers in making standard and automatic many of accessible accommodations that are required to make rich Internet applications accessible.

Chaals, I have a tremendous amount of respect for the work you and others have completed, in terms of evolving markup, defining standards and serving up resources to help folks make their content accessible. No complaints, only praise for that work. I am, however, deeply frustrated at how much of a gap exists between theoretical accessibility and actual accessibility. And, I think the majority of where that gap lies now has a lot to do with the fact that too much is being asked of site / app owners and their design and development teams, and not enough is being asked of the software manufacturers.

I don't think the W3C WAI or other voluntary standards bodies have left software manufacturers out of the mix. I never said that. What I said is that legislators, regulators and some industry thought leaders have left them out of the mix. In my opinion, we will never see a groundswell of support for digital equality unless all of the relevant forces at play are required by law to do their respective parts. Software provided by OS/UA/AT manufacturers is very relevant to digital accessibility. It must be regulated to harmonize the efforts we are demanding of digital content owners.

So, as Sarah kindly pointed out in her post yesterday, we are going to get another chance to chime on how U.S. digital accessibility law gets shaped as part of the new Supplemental Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (SANPRM) that has just been issued by the United States Department of Justice.

http://www.ada.gov/regs2016/sanprm_statement.html

This supplemental piece to the ADA relates to government agency obligations. This is particularly interesting, in terms of how we the people might be able to get our government to commit to holding software manufacturers to a high standard modern accessibility support. Let's speak up on this and other issues critical to driving universal access of digital content. We've got a chance to do this in the coming weeks as part of the ADA SANPRM public comment process.

Over and Out,

Brooks Newton