Accessible Annotation Creation Tool Notes

Use cases

• Hypothes.is - Highlighting online textbooks and articles
• Feedback tool - selection of content and request a translation, alternative, explanation, etc.
• Metadata authoring - select a section of content in the editor and insert a citation, link, bold text etc.

Two Use Cases: Read-only and Edit Cases

• If the user is in edit mode (i.e. the user is in an editable text area, or in an application like a rich text editor)
• If the user is in a read-only mode

Accessibility

• If using a screen reader - how do you know where a selection has started and ended?
• If a user has to switch modes to go into a "select mode"
  • Where do you know to put the caret?
• How will keyboard only ( no screen reader ) interactions work?

Web Standards

• https://www.w3.org/annotation/

Existing Examples

• Google Docs
  
  • How to make comments Google Docs (keyboard shortcuts)
  • Keyboard shortcuts in Google Docs
  • Editing with a screen reader
  • Screen reader support in Google Docs
• Medium.com
  • Use mouse to select text and highlight
• ARIA Effort
  • Initially part of the ARIA 1.1 effort, but moved ultimately to ARIA 2.0.
  • Starting point:  ISSUE-655: Consider creating annotations roles for comments, spell-check errors, etc.
  • Based on a proposal from Microsoft regarding annotations in Office Online:
    • Microsoft's Position Paper
• W3C Annotations Effort
  • Recent announcement from the Web Annotations Working Group.

Questions

• How do existing users perform such actions with keyboards and screen readers?
• What applications do they use? How are highlighting / annotations supported?
• Example: Google Doc