Accessibility Guidelines for Authoring Tools:
Conformance Evaluation Process

version 1.0d1 less than a draft, 9-5-2000
Matthias Müller-Prove

W3C WAI Authoring Tools Guidelines Working Group (WAI/AU)
WAI AU Teleconference - 22 August 2000

Latest Version at WD-ATAG10-TECHS-20000918

+++ You can ignore what’s comming below. +++

Nearly 100% is leveraged from Jan Richards part on images. A more precice view is needed to suit this outline to the special needs of multimedia content.

Part ##: Multimedia

Content

Definition: Equivalent Alternatives (EA)
An equivalent alternative (EA) is content that fulfills essentially the same function or purpose upon presentation to the user as the potentially inaccessible primary content. EAs play an important role in accessible authoring practices since certain types of content may not be accessible to all users (e.g., video, images, audio, etc.). For more information, see the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG 1.0.

This document will refer to three priorities (1, 2 and 3) of EAs according to the priority assigned to it by the WCAG 1.0 recommendation. If a priority is not specified then all priority levels are assumed. The following is a list of EAs followed by their priority and the relevant WCAG checkpoint that assigned the priority.

Scope of this part

What is “multimedia” content?

some quotes from WCAG 1.0:

List of Multimedia MIME types

Mime type application/

Mime tyoe audio/

Mime type image/

Mime type video/

Mime type x-world/

Open issues

Are applets being considered as multimedia?

From: "Phill Jenkins/Austin/IBM"

Subject: Re: Conformance Evaluation Process / Multimedia
To: Matthias Mueller-Prove, w3c-wai-au…
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2000 15:54:53 -0400

(…)

I would like to recommend that "interactive multimedia", which is multimedia that has hot spots that can be selected, receive focus, etc. be considered in a separate area - such as "interactive multimedia". Since not all applets employ multimedia clips I don't think of applets as being considered multimedia. Multimedia (video and audio) is or can be added to applets to end up with interactive multimedia, while from the other point of view there are existing multimedia clips that are enhanced with programming behind it to end up with interactive multimedia.

Also, the role of the user agent and/or special plug-in and/or "player" for that multimedia type needs to be considered.

Regards,
Phill Jenkins
IBM Accessibility Center - Special Needs Systems

From: Charles McCathieNevile

Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 06:24:25 -0400 (EDT)
To: Phill Jenkins/Austin/IBM
cc: Matthias Mueller-Prove <mprove>, w3c-wai-au…
Subject: Re: Conformance Evaluation Process / Multimedia

Actually I think there is a class of objects which are used in Web content that is things with their own interaction properties. The simplest is an image map or a link, but also interactive multimedia and some applets (other applets are in fact just multimedia presentations coded in a procedural way...

Another way of looking at it is to talk about "control logic" - a jargon term which means the ways that a user can move through an interactive set of choices or actions. This was what was discussed a bit in Hong Kong. It is a fairly important part of the typical design process for Interactive Voice Systems. VoiceXML, a language for describing such systems that was submitted to W3C and is available as a Note, see http://www.w3.org/TR in fact specifies a control logic (and quite an interesting one at that it seems).

Charles McCN

The Process

Start: Step 1 and 2 will help you determine which multimedia-related questions to answer about your tool. If you answer YES to both Step 1 AND Step 2 then you must complete both sections. If you answer no to both then, you can skip Part 1 of the evaluation.

Step 1: Does the tool allow users to insert multimedia elements into a markup document (Web authoring tool, word processessor)?

Step 2: Does the tool allow users to create or edit multimedia content (animation program)?

Section A (Tool is a Markup Editor)

Priority 1: Required for all levels of conformance (i.e. A, Doubke-A, Triple-A)

Step 3: Is it possible to add the Equivalent Alternatives (EAs) for multimedia using the tool (includes typing them manually)? (1.1)

Step 4: Does the tool preserve the values of the EAs during re-saving, reformatting, etc.? (1.2)

Step 5: Are meaningful Priority 1 EAs included when multimedia content is part of markup generated by the tool (ex. wizard)? (1.3)

Step 6: Are Priority 1 EAs included for multimedia content that appears as part of templates included with the distribution of the tool (ex. a photo album template)? (1.4)

Step 7: Does the tool automatically generate valid markup with regard to multimedia content (ex. is the required ALT attribute present for all HTML4 IMG elements)? (2.2)

Step 8: Does the tool prompt (require, suggest or notify the user of the absence of information and then provide a means for rectifying the situation) for the addition of Priority 1 EAs when an multimedia content is inserted? (3.1)

Step 9: Does any multimedia content (ex. clipart, etc.) that is included with the distibution of the tool include pre-written Priority 1 EAs? (3.3)

Step 10: Does the tool automatically generate EAs based on the file name, size or other information that is not necessarily related to the content or function of the multimedia content.? (3.4)

Step 11: Does the tool resuse previously authored EAs without author confirmation when the function is not known with certainty (ex. the tool automatically uses the same ALT value for two copies of the same multimedia content that is linked to different locations)? (3.4)

Step 12: Does the tool check for and notify the author when Priority 1 EAs for multimedia content is absent? (4.1)

Step 13: Does the tool assist the author in adding Priority 1 EAs for multimedia content when they are found to be absent? (4.2)

Step 14: Does the tool allow the author to edit all properties (attributes, styles, etc.) of multimedia content-related elements in an accessible fashion (i.e. using the keyboard)? (7.3)

Priority 2: Required for level Double-A and Triple-A conformance

Step 15: Are meaningful Priority 2 EAs included when multimedia content is part of markup generated by the tool (ex. wizard)? (1.3)

Step 16: Are Priority 2 EAs included for multimedia content that appear as part of templates included with the distribution of the tool (ex. a photo album template)? (1.4)

Step 17: Does the tool prompt (require, suggest or notify the user of the absence of information and then provide a means for rectifying the situation) for the addition of Priority 2 EAs when multimedia content is inserted? (3.1)

Step 18: Does any multimedia content (ex. clipart, etc.) that are included with the distibution of the tool include pre-written Priority 2 EAs? (3.3)

Step 19: Does the tool support the latest version of all the markup languages it can be used to produce? (2.1)

Step 20: Does the tool support the PNG format for inserting raster images and the SVG format for inserting vector graphics? (2.1)

Step 21: Does the tool check for and notify the author when Priority 2 EAs for multimedia content is absent? (4.1)

Step 22: Does the tool assist the author in adding Priority 2 EAs for multimedia content when they are found to be absent? (4.2)

Step 23: Does the tool allow unrecognized markup to be preserved through the editing and re-saving process (ex. will the LONGDESC attribute of IMG be preserved if the tool does not support LONGDESC)? ( 4.3)

Step 24: Does functionality for adding and editing the EAs for multimedia content appear well integrated with the overall look and feel of the tool (ex. included within standard multimedia content insertion and properties dialogs)? (5.1)

Step 25: Does the documentation regarding the EAs for multimedia content appear well integrated with the rest of the documentation (used in examples throughout, not confined to a separate section)? (6.2)

Priority 3: Only required for level Triple-A conformance

Step 26: Are meaningful Priority 3 EAs included when multimedia content is part of markup generated by the tool (ex. wizard)? (1.3)

Step 27: Are Priority 3 EAs included for multimedia content that appear as part of templates included with the distribution of the tool (ex. a video album template)? (1.4)

Step 28: Does the tool prompt (require, suggest or notify the user of the absence of information and then provide a means for rectifying the situation) for the addition of Priority 3 EAs when an multimedia content is inserted? (3.1)

Step 29: Does any multimedia content (ex. media clipart, etc.) that are included with the distibution of the tool include pre-written Priority 3 EAs? (3.3)

Step 30: If the multimedia content-related output of the tool does not conform to W3C specifications (ex. improper use of IMG element in HTML4), does the tool notify the author? (2.3)

Step 31: Does the tool include the ability to search and reuse or otherwise manage the EAs of multimedia content? (3.5)

Step 32: Does the tool check for and notify the author when Priority 3 EAs for multimedia content is absent? (4.1)

Step 33: Does the tool assist the author in adding Priority 3 EAs for multimedia content when they are found to be absent? (4.2)

Section B (Tool is an Multimedia Editor)

Priority 1: Required for all levels of conformance (i.e. A, Double-A, Triple-A)

Step 34: If the tool supports multimedia content formats with text tracks (i.e. SVG, QuickTime, Flash), is it possible to use the tool to add Equivalent Alternatives (EAs) to the text tracks? (1.1)

Step 35: Is it possible to use the tool to author Equivalent Alternatives (EAs) for the multimedia content that can be stored in separate files (ex. short (ALT) and long (LONGDESC) descriptive text files)? (1.1)

Step 36: If the tool supports multimedia content formats with text tracks, are the text track values preserved during re-saving, conversion to another format that includes text tracks, etc.? (1.2)

Step 37: If the tool supports separate descriptive files for multimedia content, are those files preserved during re-saving or conversion to another format, etc.? (1.2)

Step 38: Does the tool prompt (require, suggest or notify the user of the absence of information and then provide a means for rectifying the situation) for the addition of separate or text track Priority 1 EAs at some point during the creation of multimedia content (ex. after a successful save)? (3.1)

Step 39: Does the multimedia content (ex. video clipart, etc.) included in the tool's distibution packages include pre-written Priority 1 EAs stored in their text tracks or as separate descriptive files? (3.3)

Step 40: Does the tool automatically generate EAs based on the file name, size or other information that is not necessarily related to the content or function of the multimedia content? (3.4)

Step 41: If the tool supports multimedia content formats with text tracks, does the tool check for and notify the author when Priority 1 EAs are absent from this track? (4.1)

Step 42: Does the tool check for and notify the author when separate descriptive files storing the Priority 1 EAs for multimedia content are absent? (4.1)

Step 43: If the tool supports multimedia content formats with text tracks, does the tool assist the author in adding Priority 1 EAs when they are found to be absent? (4.2)

Step 44: Does the tool assist the author in adding Priority 1 EAs to separate descriptive files when they are found to be absent? (4.2)

Step 45: Does the tool allow the author to edit all properties (colour, size, transparency, etc.) of the multimedia content in an accessible fashion (i.e. using the keyboard)? (7.3)

Priority 2: Required for level Double-A and Triple-A conformance

Step 46: If the tool is intended to produce raster images, does the tool support the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format? (2.1)

Step 47: If the tool is intended to produce vector graphics, does the tool support the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format? (2.1)

Step 48: Does the tool prompt (require, suggest or notify the user of the absence of information and then provide a means for rectifying the situation) for the addition of separate or text track Priority 2 EAs at some point during the creation of multimedia content (ex. after a successful save)? (3.1)

Step 49: Does the multimedia content (ex. media clipart, etc.) included in the tool's distibution packages include pre-written Priority 2 EAs stored in their text tracks or as separate descriptive files? (3.3)

Step 50: If the tool supports multimedia content formats with text tracks, does the tool check for and notify the author when Priority 2 EAs are absent from this track? (4.1)

Step 51: Does the tool check for and notify the author when separate descriptive files storing the Priority 2 EAs for the multimedia content are absent? (4.1)

Step 52: If the tool supports multimedia content formats with text tracks, does the tool assist the author in adding Priority 2 EAs when they are found to be absent? (4.2)

Step 53: Does the tool assist the author in adding Priority 2 EAs to separate descriptive files when they are found to be absent? (4.2)

Step 54: Does functionality for adding and editing the EAs stored in separate descriptive files or text tracks appear well integrated with the overall look and feel of the tool? (5.1)

Step 55: Does the documentation regarding the adding and editing the EAs stored in separate descriptive files or text track appear well integrated with the rest of the documentation (used in examples throughout, not confined to a separate section)? (6.2)

Priority 3: Only required for level Triple-A conformance

Step 56: If the tool produces a raster image in a format besides PNG, does the tool inform the author? (2.3)

Step 57: If the tool produces a vector graphic image in a format besides SVG, does the tool inform the author? (2.3)

Step 58: Does the tool prompt (require, suggest or notify the user of the absence of information and then provide a means for rectifying the situation) for the addition of separate or text track Priority 3 EAs at some point during the creation of multimedia content (ex. after a successful save)? (3.1)

Step 59: Does the multimedia content (ex. video clipart, etc.) included in the tool's distibution packages include pre-written Priority 3 EAs stored in their text tracks or as separate descriptive files? (3.3)

Step 60: Does the tool include the ability to search and reuse or otherwise manage the EAs stored in separate descriptive files or text track? (3.5)

Step 61: If the tool supports multimedia content formats with text tracks, does the tool check for and notify the author when Priority 3 EAs are absent from this track? (4.1)

Step 62: Does the tool check for and notify the author when separate descriptive files storing the Priority 3 EAs for multimedia content are absent? (4.1)

Step 63: If the tool supports multimedia content formats with text tracks, does the tool assist the author in adding Priority 3 EAs when they are found to be absent? (4.2)

Step 64: Does the tool assist the author in adding Priority 3 EAs to separate descriptive files when they are found to be absent? (4.2)

By Matthias Müller-Prove. Modified: 5/1/20