HTML5 Sanity Check

Most of us are excited about HTML5 and all the benefits it will bring. Overly excited maybe is a more accurate term, which includes myself. We as a community need a "sanity check" about the readiness of HTML5 and its accessibility because:

1. The spec isn't complete (2012 for Candidate Recommendation) thus requirements may still change.
2. The browsers are in the middle of implementation and much accessibility support isn't provided yet.
3. There are many accessibility issues remaining such as Canvas in general; no semantic information to assistive technology for many elements; keyboard access lacking in audio & video controls in most conditions.

The web site HTML5Accessibility.com is a great place to learn about these issues for each major web browser. Along with that is a presentation by Steve Faulkner (@stevefaulkner) of the Paciello Group: HTML5 Accessibility - Is It Ready Yet? presentation by Steve Faulkner and and Hans Hillen (SlideShare).

Because of this intermediate stage, we developers must implement more complex code as desired, including fallback methods for user agents which don't yet support the HTML5 features. Here are some great resources on doing so:

• HTML5 Cross browser Polyfills - Shims, fallbacks, and polyfills in order to implant html5 functionality in browsers that don't natively support them.
• The most pressing Accessibility issue in HTML5 today? <video> by John Foliot (@johnfoliot).
• Creating Your Own Accessible HTML5 Media Player by Terry Thompson (@terrillthompson)
• HTML5, ARIA Roles, and Screen Readers by Accessible Culture