Monday October 16, 2006

ODF 1.1 standardization update

I've been getting asked this a bunch lately, so it seemed time for a general update on the process of ODF 1.1 standardization.

The OASIS Technical Committee for ODF is about halfway through the ballot process to make Committee Draft #3 of ODF 1.1 into the formal "OpenDocument v1.1 Committee Specification" (the voting period is from October 12 through October 19). Once that is completed (and assuming 2/3rds of those eligible to vote approve it), it will be submitted to OASIS overall, to make it an OASIS standard. OASIS voting opportunities occur once each month: candidate standards submitted by the 15th of one month are voted on in the second half of the following month. Thus, if on October 19th the OASIS ODF TC approves Committee Draft #3 as OpenDocument v1.1 Committee Specification, it could propose anytime before November 15th for OASIS to consider voting on ODF 1.1 as an OASIS standard, with a voting period in the second half of December. However, given the number of folks who are on vacation at that time, the more likely place to do this is a ballot in the second half of January, 2007 (in which case the ODF TC has until December 15th to put forth ODF 1.1 as a candidate for OASIS standardization). And in fact, this was the expectation coming out of the ODF TC Work meeting earlier today: TC submission to OASIS by December 15th for OASIS voting in January 2007. (2006-10-16 15:19:48.0) Permalink

Thursday October 05, 2006

Making Rich Web Applications accessible: WAI-ARIA

Web applications have gotten more rich, and more complex, and more interactive, over the years - and with these changes making them accessible has become more and more difficult. Last week the the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative issued a press release and a Call for Review of the solution: the WAI-ARIA Roadmap, the WAI's Accessible Rich Internet Application specification suite.

WAI-ARIA takes the route that Sun took with Java in 1997, Sun and the open souce GNOME (and now KDE) began in 2000, that Apple took in Mac OS X, and that Microsoft is taking in Vista: supporting assistive technologies via a formal accessibility contract between the (web) application and the assistive technology. The only difference is that with WAI-ARIA, it is the job of the Web client to expose the WAI-ARIA information and application events to the AT via the accessibility frameworks on the operating system (UNIX, Macintosh, Windows) in question. This is done in WAI-ARIA by tagging the user interface elements of a rich web application with the appropriate RDF role (so the screen reader call tell the blind user that this thing is a button or a menu item), with the appropriate RDF States (so the screen reader can tell the blind user that this checkbox is unchecked, what that checkbox is checked), and then having those web applications fire the appropriate events (so that the screen reader knows what is focused and can speak it, and the screen magnifier know what is focused so it can pan the magnified region of the screen to encompass it).

And one of the great things about WAI-ARIA and the open source community, is that folks have already implemented support for this in Firefox (and further working with the Mozilla Foundation Windows AT products like JAWS and WindowEyes and ZoomText are making accessible Firefox's exposure of the WAI-ARIA and thereby rich web applications to people with disabilities; with UNIX support coming in Firefox 3.0). So, if you are interested in developing rich Web applications, you now have the tools to make them accessible to people with disabilities. [yes, these specifications aren't yet final, but the drafts are implemented - and while they may change some, it's far better to use them as they are now to start making your rich web app accessible than to wait and offer nothing to folks with disabilities]. (2006-10-05 22:31:04.0) Permalink

Tuesday October 03, 2006

First 'TEITAC' meeting

Last week I had the pleasure of representing Sun at the first meeting of the Telecommunications and Electronic and Information Technology Advisory Committee (or TEITAC for short). This advisory committee was created earlier this year in order to advise the U.S. Access Board on updates to the accessiiblity provision in Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act and Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act. This advisory committee consists of (now) 42 companies, organizations, and government agencies - all sitting around a large U-shaped table filled with laptops, power strips, network cables, and in front of a backdrop of seats with members of the public watching the proceedings. We were thoughtfully assigned a modified "boy-girl-boy-girl" seating arrangement - alternating between industry, advocacy, and government agency (with the occasional non-US representative mixed in).

Of the many topics discussed and presentations given over the three day event, I was most taken by essentially variants of the same comment from several government agencies, state representatives, and the public: that the accessibility provisions in Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act serve as a model worldwide. They are not only adopted - practically verbatim - by Federal Agencies who aren't formally required to use them, by many U.S. States, by at least one commercial company, and by countries around the world. As one person elequently noted, some 500 million people worldwide with disabilities will be impacted by this work. Another reminded us that while Section 508 is procurement legislation, it is also essentially civil rights legislation, and the work of the Access Board and this advisory committee will have an impact on the lives of people around the globe.

10 organizations petitioned to join the already large advisory committee (I'm told it is the largest U.S. government advisory committee in the history of the Federal Advisory Committee Act). Many of the arguments put forth for why these organizations should be part of TEITAC were strong and compelling. However, since a supermajority (3/4ths) of the existing advisory committee members needed to vote "for" someone in order for them to be added to the advisory committee, only one - AOL - managed to join.

While membership in the advisory committee is an honor and priviledge, I believe the bulk of the work will actually take place in the subcommittees formed to focus on specific parts of both Section 508 and Section 255. Membership in the subcommittees is open to experts and interested parties beyond just those on the main committee, and announcements of the subcommittees and information about them should be available soon on the 508/255 Refresh page. I hope that the nine folks who petitioned to join the advisory committee bring their contributions to the subcommittees, to help improve the already very impactful and successful accessibility provision of Section 508 and Section 255. (2006-10-03 15:27:35.0) Permalink