Re: Update on WebKit accessibility support (Re: WebKit release cycle and dependency request)

[David Bolter <david bolter utoronto ca>]

Maciej,

This is great news indeed! I'm particularly pleased that the tabindex
and ARIA work is happening. I'm not sure if anyone has stepped up to the
plate for the ATK back end.

Now, who wants to take the atk back-end torch and run with it? (I'd love
to, but I'm completely swamped)

cheers,
David

Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
> I'd like to give a quick update on the state of WebKit accessibility 
> support, and clarify a few things.
>
> 1) Our accessibility code refactoring is complete; the Mac-specific 
> code is now cleanly separated from a Mac-specific back end.
>
> 2) We have added a second back end for Windows MSAA. This validates 
> the cross-platform accessibility architecture and the relative ease of 
> adding a back end. (But it will still be up to GNOME/Gtk-focused 
> hackers or other ports targeting Linux to add a back end for AT-SPI).
>
> 3) We have recently added support for global tabIndex, a prerequisite 
> for ARIA: <http://trac.webkit.org/changeset/32664>. We've also landed 
> an initial patch for a small bit of partial ARIA 
> support: <http://trac.webkit.org/changeset/32694>. We realize there is 
> a long way to go on this but I thought people here may want to know 
> that things are underway.
>
> To address some specific questions:
>
> On Apr 17, 2008, at 5:29 AM, Willie Walker wrote:
> > For a first pass, if WebKit were to provide AT-SPI equivalent to Gecko
> > 1.9 a11y sans ARIA support, I think it would be OK.  But, I would like
> > to see plans and commitment to delivering ARIA at some point soon
> > thereafter.
>
> I can't really make firm commitments on behalf of Apple or the WebKit 
> project as a whole, but you can probably guess that we're not going to 
> stop working on it.
>
> > Another thing of great importance is to make sure WebKit
> > provided compelling keyboard support for interacting with the content.  
> > This includes navigating the 'read only' content using normal means
> > (e.g., arrowing, page up/down, etc.) as well as text selection and
> > cut/copy/paste support.
>
> Scrolling read-only content and focus navigation are built-in, 
> including the newly minted support for tabIndex.
>
>
> On Apr 16, 2008, at 7:05 AM, David Bolter wrote:
> > Is there any accessibility support work happening for DHTML web 
> > applications? Is Apple working on that support in-house or is there open 
> > source collaboration?
> >
> > Please note:
> > https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7138 "Implement tabindex for all 
> > elements, enabling accessible web apps"
> > https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12132 "Implement ARIA to enable 
> > dynamic web appliations"
> >
> > Very important to get these issues resolved for the modern web :)
>
> You will notice the first of these is RESOLVED/FIXED. Note that 
> WebKit's built-in accessibility recognizes both controls and 
> script-installed click event handlers to detect activatable elements 
> and expose these actions to AT, so less complex DHTML will often work 
> ok without any ARIA markup.
>
>
> On Apr 17, 2008, at 8:36 AM, Shaun McCance wrote:
> > Yet.  There are some JavaScript things I'd like to do.
> > Things like annotation popups and collapsible sections.
> > Nothing on the order of a web app like GMail, but still
> > things that need to be accessible.
>
> You may find some of these things are accessible without the need for 
> ARIA, since appropriately marked up clickable controls are exposed to 
>  AT in any case. I would advise testing.
>
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Best Regards,
> Maciej
>
>
>
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