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Adapt Symbols Workshop: Implementation Approach Session

Past
Confirmed

This is a specific part of the overall Adapt Symbols Workshop, where we will present a summary of the work (use cases, implementation requirements) and any specific barriers we foresee.

The goal is to highlight any specific barriers we foresee, how we plan to address them, and seek feedback on our proposed approaches to doing so.

Note: Some important background (in our issue 240, but recapping): Bliss has an alphabet of ~1,300 characters out of ~7,000 concepts. The Bliss 'alphabet' is proposed for inclusion in Unicode.

We have a draft matrix detailing the use cases/requirements/issues we've looked at. From this, we have the following specific questions that we'd like to cover with you on the call:

Highlighting our concern around the keying scheme: we intend to provide a dictionary of concepts, but using Unicode code points for Bliss characters is actually keying off the visual presentation of the concepts (we can elaborate on the call; there is some more detail in the matrix).
Additional question: An alternative approach to indexing off of Bliss spellings (as proposed) would be to put all Bliss concepts as single code points in the PUA - what are the downsides to that?
Overloading of <ruby> / are we looking at something like <ruby symbol>, or type or similar? (Can it work if we are using 'normal' rubies and 'symbol' rubies?)
What to do if a symbol set font doesn't have a symbol for a concept that is being used - presumed default behaviour of showing a blank square/diamond will confuse users.
Accessible name for rendered symbols.
Technical expertise required to personalise the fonts vs. cascading a set of fonts - and any fingerprinting risks associated with both possible approaches.
Need for multiple <rt>s per <ruby> (laid out appropriately).
- Update: After further research last night, we found that this does appear to be possible (including having the rendered symbols horizontally laid out).
- Additional question: We found from our meeting with AAC experts that putting the symbol inline-prior to the text being summarised by the symbol can be of help (in addition to the, we think, more prevalent positioning of the symbol above the text to which it relates). We need to make this easy for authors (need to check it can be easily done via CSS).

Note: Our matrix is a draft, and we are currently down one technical member of the group due to illness alas, so we still have some issues to look into amongst ourselves first (as noted in the matrix).

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Adapt Symbols Workshop: Expert Overview Session

Past
Confirmed

This is a specific part of the overall Adapt Symbols Workshop, where we will present a summary of the work (use cases, implementation requirements) and any specific barriers we foresee. We will present a draft matrix that gives this overview from our current perspective before the call.

That being said, the details in the matrix are not so important for this call - we have produced the following list of questions we'd like to cover, to help us learn more about how symbols are used:

How 'localisation' of symbols - e.g. to specific groups or regions (within a wider country/symbol set) - currently works.
How personalised symbols for a specific person may be made and deployed.
The extent to which a base symbol set may be customised for local, or individual considerations.
Given that the first version of our proposed approach seeks minimal symbolisation for maximal results, what would be the most important content to highlight with symbols for our user population?
- E.g. we are thinking of a single symbol per row, for chapters in videos, or step-by-step procedures; the symbol functions as a summary to aid comprehension.
The sorts of technologies, graphics formats, used to provide symbols. Are popular symbol sets developed as vectors (even if released as bitmaps)?

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Adapt Symbols Workshop (face-to-face)

Past
Confirmed

We will hold a face to face meeting on the 5th and 6th of May 2025. This will allow us to iron out our approach on how to support symbols in web content.

This is the calendar entry for the entire workshop. The agenda is being maintained on GitHub (including local weather and food information) and is linked below.

We also have two specific calls with external people. Each of them is listed in the agenda (linked below), and each also has its own W3C Calendar entry. For completeness, they are:

Tuesday, 11:00 to 12:00: Adapt Symbols Workshop: Expert Overview Session
Tuesday, 16:00 to 17:00: Adapt Symbols Workshop: Implementation Approach Session

Note: Event times are 08:30 BST to 17:30 BST on each day.

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WAI Adapt Task Force - Past Calendar

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