[uf-new] hAudio implemented on Bitmunk (with one snag)

[Benjamin West]

One possible solution is to use an image replacement technique.  Also,
you may choose to send content in a <span> and then hide it when it's
unnecessary.

-Ben

On 7/8/07, Manu Sporny <msporny at digitalbazaar.com> wrote:
> We've gone through and implemented hAudio on Bitmunk.com (one of our
> service websites). David Lehn, one of our semantic web guys, has also
> created an hAudio plug-in for Operator. Mike Kaply, author of Operator,
> said that he will make it available via the Operator download section
> within the next week or two. To view some hAudio compliant markup, you
> can go to the following link:
>
> http://www.bitmunk.com/view/media/6011098
>
> There are over 850,000 songs that have been marked up on the website. We
> are in the process of talking our partners, colleagues and competitors
> into using hAudio to mark up their audio content as well. So, good
> progress is being made in implementing hAudio.
>
> However, we've hit a snag when it comes to usability with hAudio and
> Operator/Firefox 3.
>
> Problem Description:
>
> It is quite often that a site uses an image instead of a text link to
> present actions. For example: Instead of using the text "Download", they
> will use a graphic image with a downward-facing arrow.
>
> In other words, if we have this:
>
> Download:
> <a href="http://my.site.com/download/3847293">
>  <img src="/images/cool_download_button.png"/>
> </a>
>
> How do we present this option to a human being in a non-web-page UI?
>
> How it relates to the Examples:
>
> We (Bitmunk.com) has this problem with 'rel-sample', 'rel-enclosure',
> and 'rel-payment'. Most of the examples also contain images instead of
> text for samples, downloads and purchase links. This is a demonstrable,
> widespread problem.
>
> The problem with Operator and screen readers:
>
> If there is no text to display, then how does one place the item into a
> menu/display for Operator/Firefox? Grabbing the image and placing it in
> a UI is a difficult argument to make - there are a variety of image
> sizes that might not do well in the Operator UI (or Firefox 3 UI).
>
> Proposed solution:
>
> We have a fix for Operator that uses the link title text if there is no
> internal text. This fixes the problem for both Operator menu display,
> Firefox 3 UI display and for screen readers. Here's how the site author
> would change the text above:
>
> Download:
> <a rel="rel-enclosure" title="Download My Song"
>    href="http://my.site.com/download/MySong.mp3">
>  <img src="/images/cool_download_button.png"/>
> </a>
>
> This approach is beneficial for the following reasons:
>
> 1. It POSH-ifies the website.
> 2. It works well with Operator, Firefox 3 and other uF parsers/UIs.
> 3. It fixes the accessibility/screen reader problem.
>
> We need feedback/consensus from the uF community before submitting the
> patch for inclusion into Operator/Firefox 3. Is there anybody that
> disagrees with this approach or has a better approach?
>
> -- manu
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