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Subject: DocBook Accessibility Issues


Here are the issues that I found in a fast review of the DocBook/HTML
accessibility issues.  To do this, I:

  1) Went to the WAVE accessibility tool at

     http://www.wave.webaim.org/index.jsp

     and uploaded a sampler document that I created with a large
     portion of the DocBook grammar in it.  I then reviewed the result

  2) Reviewed the WebAIM Section 508 Web Accessibility Checklist for
     HTML at:

     http://www.webaim.org/standards/508/checklist
 
     (I used the PDF version provided near the top of the page.)

  3) Reviewed the W3C Checklist of Checkpoints for Web Content 
     Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 at:

     http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/full-checklist.html


I came up with the attached list of issues.  I have sorted them into
what I consider DocBook markup issues and HTML render issues and 
questions, although there is room for discussion about some of the 
categorization.  Not surprisingly, there were more render issues than 
markup issues.  I have included both, since it seemed that we can
ignore any of the list that seems inappropriate for discussion without
losing the information.

LRR

=======================================================================
[ Larry Rowland             | If you want to build a ship, don't drum ]
[ DTP in CSIL               | up the men to gather the wood, divide   ]
[ Hewlett-Packard           | the work, and give orders. Instead,     ]
[ 3404 East Harmony Road    | teach them to yearn for the vast and    ]
[ Fort Collins, CO  80528   | endless sea. - Antoine de Saint Exupery ]
[ Phone: 970/898-2280       +-----------------------------------------]
[ FAX:   970/898-2188   E-Mail:larry.rowland@.hp.com                  ]
=======================================================================
DocBook Section 508 HTML Issues


DocBook Grammar Issues/Questions
--------------------------------

1) lack of alt text for <guiicon>

2) <mediaobject> / <inlinemediaobject>
   DocBook: The Definitive Guide says "Under no circumstances should
   more than one object in a mediaobject be used or presented at the
   same time." What about textobject/phrase - however, caption is said
   to supplement the *object items; may want to reword the description
   in the Definitive Guide

3) May need an alternate expression for literallayout elements (1.1 of
   W3C guidelines)

4) Title attribute for ulink, link, xref and any other elements
   producing an <a href=""> result.

5) abbrv and acronym in HTML have title attributes

6) Summary attribute for tables

7) Abbreviations of table headers

8) Need way to identify the linear text alternatives to tables that
   are used to provide parallel presentations of columns of wrapped
   text



Render Issues
--------------

1) <b> and <i> vs <strong> and <em> or CSS

2) Table row and column headers shall be identified for data tables
   (need to pass through the CALS markup?)

3) Table cells shall be associated with header cells (various
   mechanisms available)

4) Tables used for layout shall have empty alt tags, not missing ones

5) Make sure the HTML produced valid

6) Avoid popups (in another window -- I seem to remember that when a
    textobject with other than a single phrase element is used, there
    is a link to a popup with the rendered content)

7) Do not use tables for layout unless table makes sense when
   linearized (need to check the glossary, varlist, simplelist, etc.) 

8) There are numerous forms issues (html:form) which I guess the
    author owns since they are in another namespace

9) Provide language identification in content

10) Use em, strong, cite, dfn, code, samp, kbd, var, abbrv, acronym
    for DocBook equivalents

11) Automatic table purposes for things that use tables to organize
    content (variable list, glossary, etc.)



Not Sure Where to Classify
--------------------------

1) Client side image maps are prefered, explicit link alternatives to
   links in server side images

2) Need ability to Skip around figures, literallaout, etc. that are
   ASCII art 

3) Redundant lists of links for client side image maps



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