w3c / w3c/mathml

Interop with/use of accessibilityFeature property for MathML

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accessibility MathML-Next
Dominant language
HTML
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Forks
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Description

I was investigating the question of whether there is a standardized way to annotate the target consumer for a given MathML dialect, mostly thinking of assistive technology.
(short answer: There isn't)

Instead, I discovered that ePub 3 has put in some work to leverage schema.org vocabularies for annotating various features that may or may not be enabled in a given document.

Most relevant may be the accessibilityFeature property, ands its schema.org accessibilityFeature vocabulary.

That effort seems to have independently (or has there been contact?) invented an annotation for chemical formulas, called MathML-chemistry.

The great enabling feature of using this approach is that we can do global, document-level, annotations, which we are currently missing. And it is helpful that it documents a fixed vocabulary for feature flags.

Reading their current vocabulary, this would be an example that the MathML on a page is already remediated for accessibility, either via alttext "or other means" and pertains to chemistry:

<article vocab="https://schema.org/" typeof="DigitalDocument">
   <meta property="accessibilityFeature" content="describedMath"/>
   <meta property="accessibilityFeature" content="MathML"/>
   <meta property="accessibilityFeature" content="MathML-chemistry"/>
   <!-- ... -->

Suggestion: I think the WG should discuss the mechanism and its possible use in MathML 4, and if seen favorably -- suggest helpful extensions.

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First steps

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  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reviewing the linked schema.org accessibilityFeature vocabulary and the MathML-chemistry entry, then compare the proposed document-level HTML annotations with the current MathML 4 editors draft. The issue is done when the WG has discussed whether to use this mechanism and, if favorable, identified helpful extensions.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
html
Domain
accessibility
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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