> ExamplesOfAccessibilityTermUsage

The term proposed for inclusion as a new Dublin Core term is DC Adaptability

Examples of How to Use the DC:Adaptability Term

Subject: DC.Adapability

Label: Adaptability

Element Description: "A statement describing characteristics of the resource that affect how it can be perceived, understood or interacted with by users."

Comment: “An Adaptability description might be used to match a (digital or physical) resource to a description of user or user agent needs and preferences.”

The content of Adaptability is a structured value using the Dublin Core Structured Values (DCSV) scheme.

Guidelines for Content Creation

In HTML

If the resource is composed of multiple mixed adaptability features then multiple or repeated Adaptability elements should be used to describe the main components.

Examples

Using free text:

Using controlled vocabulary:

Using a pointer to an EARL statement:

Other values taken from the controlled vocabulary that might be used:

Note: The simplest example recommended is a statement of the type “has modality; type=visual”.

This description will alert any application looking for standard format information to the need to investigate further the ways in which this resource can be presented to a user who requests it but at the time cannot use visual sensory perception.

Another free text example is “This resource may not be accessible if a user does not have auditory capabilities at the time but the publishers will supply captions and a transcript upon request to help@publisher.com.”

Such an example contains some information that can be useful but, in general, it will not be useful for triggering machine actions such as the seeking of other equivalent resources. Controlled vocabularies are recommended to facilitate interoperability and machine-readability.

Primary and Equivalent Relationships

In the AccessForAll information model, there is the concept of 'primary' and 'equivalent' resources. The primary resource is the original resource. It can contain a set of components from which a composition of the resource to be delivered is assembled. These components provide alternative access modalities and have their own adaptability properties. An equivalent resource is another resource used to provide a user with a version of the original resource they can use either by being substituted for the original resource or a component of it (alternative) or by augmenting the original resource or a component of it (supplementary).

Continuing with the DCSV format.

Examples:

In the description of the primary resource where there is a known equivalent available:

In the description of the equivalent resource:

Using DC expressed in XML:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<metadata xmlns="http://example.org/myapp/"

</metadata>

XML with a pointer to an EARL statement:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<metadata xmlns="http://example.org/myapp/"

</metadata>

Specification conformance

DC Adaptability is not about conformance to an 'accessibility standard' (that would be a DC relation element value) but there are specifications that relate to aspects of what is relevant to DC Adaptability. In the case where there is a document that provides machine-readable information about conformance of a resource to such a specification, some or all of that machine-readable information may be of interest, as will be the case where the specifications are the W3C WCAG specifications.

DC metadata in RDF

Some IMS data included directly

<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"

</rdf:RDF>

Note that this uses serious RDF, although it could be further simplified if there are formal Class/subClass definitions. (For example anything called type is likely to be a candidate for simplification using RDF Vocabulary Language.

RDF linking to an external resource

<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"

</rdf:RDF>

Text transformation

In the case where there is text, the ‘transformability’ of the text may be an issue. Determining this depends upon answering a series of questions about the text. There are already tools that automate the process. They are often used to determine conformance to accessibility specifications. These tools can produce EARL statements that contain information needed by machines to determine if they can do text transformation and how to do it. A pointer to such a statement would be used as the value for textTransformability of a resource or component.