[uf-discuss] Re: Putting microformats on the BBC iPlayer

[Scott Reynen]

On Mar 5, 2008, at 4:57 AM, Toby A Inkster wrote:

> For example, the following:
>
> 	<span title="Monday 3 March 2008 (data:2008-03-03)"
> 	class="dtstart">started two days ago</span>
>
> Is perfectly accessible in all tested screen readers (the read the  
> human-
> readable "started two days ago") and seems to present no problems  
> for any
> other assistive technology.


I think the problem is that "seems to."  The original <abbr> pattern  
seemed to present no problems, but then it did have problems with real  
screen readers in deployment.  So the progress is slow here because  
it's difficult to get access to such testing, and such testing is very  
important.  See:

http://www.w3.org/WAI/eval/users.html

To avoid repeating the same mistake, we shouldn't rubber stamp any  
potential solution without first testing with real world screen reader  
users.  Lacking volunteers coming forward to offer such testing, as  
they have with the include pattern, perhaps we should look into how  
much it would cost to pay for the testing and see if we can't raise  
funds to get it done.

Peace,
Scott