[uf-discuss] Hcalendar in bbc.co.uk/programmes

[Robert O'Rourke]

Andy Mabbett wrote:
> In message <C37C79FD.85A3%Michael.Smethurst at bbc.co.uk>, Michael
> Smethurst <Michael.Smethurst at bbc.co.uk> writes
>
>   
>> Just to say that hCalendar is used fairly extensively to describe
>> broadcasts on bbc.co.uk/programmes here:
>>
>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/genres/music
>>     
>
>   
>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/formats/animation
>>     
>
>   
>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qpgr/laston
>>     
>
>   
>> Having said that it's not been through accessibility testing yet so it
>> might not be for long...
>>     
>
> It will be interesting to know the outcome of that testing, in the light
> of mark-up like:
>
>         <abbr class="dtstart" title="2007-12-12T16:03:00Z">
>           16:03
>         </abbr>
>
> and the issues raised here:
>
>         <http://www.webstandards.org/2007/04/27/haccessibility/>

I know it defeats the object semantically speaking but what are the 
other arguments against putting the machine-readable date/time in the 
class attribute and do they outweigh the gain in accessibility?

For example, what's wrong with this:

	<abbr class="dtstart:2007-12-12T16:03:00Z" title="3 minutes past 4pm, 12th December 2007">
          16:03
        </abbr>

Since no solution is ideal with the current HTML flavours people use is 
there any work being done with regard to the new HTML specs like HTML5? 
A <DATE> element or data="" attribute for example?

-Rob