This document is an intermediate draft produced by the W3C CSS&FP Working Group as part of the Stylesheets Activity; it is stable enough to be released for public comment (to www-style@w3.org) but may change before approval as (part of) a recommendation. Hence it should not be implemented as part of a production system, but may be implemented on an experimental basis.
This is a W3C Working Draft for review by W3C members and other interested parties. It is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use W3C Working Drafts as reference material or to cite them as other than "work in progress." A list of current W3C technical reports can be found at http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/TR. Since working drafts are subject to frequent change, you are advised to reference the latter URL, rather than the URL for this working draft.
This document draws very heavily on the initial CSS properties proposed by T.V. Raman. It also attempts to address those issues, raised on the www-style mailing list, that were altered in the later modification but does not address them in the same way.
This document builds upon the CSS1 specification.
Those of us who are sighted are accustomed to visual presentation of HTML documents, frequently on a bitmapped display. This is not the only possible presentation method, however. Aural presentation, using a combination of speech synthesis and 'audio icons', provides an alternative presentation. This form of presentation is already in current use by the blind and print-impaired communities.
Often such aural presentation occurs by converting the document to plain text and feeding this to a 'screen reader' -- software or hardware that simply reads all the characters on the screen. This results in less effective presentation than would be the case if the document structure were retained. A benefit of separating the content (the HTML) and the visual presentation (the stylesheet) is that other types of presentation can also be offered as options (other stylesheets). Stylesheet properties for aural presentation can be used together with visual properties (mixed media) or as an aural alternative to visual presentation.
Besides the obvious accessibility issues for the blind, there are other large markets for aural presentation:
Hence, aural or mixed aural/visual presentation is likely to increase in importance over the next few years. Realizing that the aural rendering is essentially independent of the visual rendering:
Given this current and future importance, it makes sense to influence presentation based on the structure of the document. Cascading Style Sheets [1] may be used for this purpose. Using style sheets rather than HTML tag extensions allows the same document to be read with visual, aural, or mulitmodal presentation without cluttering up the document or having to produce three (or more) separate parallel documents - which has been shown to result in consistency and update problems. This approach provides greatly improved document accessibility for visually disabled people (the information is better presented and is just as up-to-date as the visual version) without requiring compromises in the visual design of the document.
This section extends the CSS1 specification to allow additional types of value.
Style sheets influence the presentation of documents by assigning values to style properties. This section lists the defined style properties for aural presentation, and their corresponding list of possible values, expressed in CSS1 syntax.
The list of CSS1 properties has been kept to a minimum, while making sure commonly used styles can be expressed. Depending on the formatting model and the presentation medium, some properties can prove hard to incorporate into existing UA implementations. E.g., a monaural browser is not able to fully honor spatial audio, but should approximate by mixing all the channels together.
In the text below, the allowed values for each property are listed with a syntax like the following (this is the same syntax as CSS1):
Value: N | NW | NE
Value: [ <length> | thick | thin ]{1,4}
Value: <uri>? <color> [ / <color> ]?
Value: <uri> || <color>
The words between < and > give a type of value. This specification introduces some new units for property values.
Other words are keywords that must appear literally, without quotes. The slash (/) and the comma (,) must also appear literally.
Several things juxtaposed mean that all of them must occur, in the given order. A bar (|) separates alternatives: one of them must occur. A double bar (A || B) means that either A or B or both must occur, in any order. Brackets ([]) are for grouping. Juxtaposition is stronger than the double bar, and the double bar is stronger than the bar. Thus "a b | c || d e" is equivalent to "[ a b ] | [ c || [ d e ]]".
Every type, keyword, or bracketed group may be followed by one of the following modifiers:
This specification introduces two new units in addition to the units of CSS1.
These are the legal angle units:
These are the legal time units:
Value: <percentage> | mute | x-soft | soft | medium | loud | x-loud
Initial: medium
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentage values: relative to user-specified mapping
The legal range of percentage values is 0% to 100%. Note that '0%' does not mean the same as "mute". 0% represents the minimum audible volume level and 100% corresponds to the maximum comfortable level. There is a fixed mapping between keyword values and percentages:
Volume refers to the median volume of the waveform. In other words, a highly inflected voice at a volume of 50 might peak well above that. The overall values are likely to be human adjustable for comfort, for example with a physical volume control (which would increase both the 0% and 100% values proportionately); what this property does is adjust the dynamic range.
The UA should allow the values corresponding to 0% and 100% to be set by the listener. No one setting is universally applicable; suitable values depend on the equipment in use (speakers, headphones), the environment (in car, home theater, library) and personal preferences. Some examples:
The same authors stylesheet could be used in all cases, simply by mapping the 0 and 100 points suitably at the client side.
If an element has a volume of mute, it is not spoken. The element takes up no time; it is not represented as a pause the length of the spoken text. Child elements may set the volume to a non-mute value and are thus spoken. To inhibit the speaking of an element and all it's children (for example, to get the effect of collapsing and expanding lists) use the CSS1 property 'display':
display: none
For volume=mute, what happens to the pause-before and pause-after?
Value: <time> | <percentage>
Initial: UA specific
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentage values: NA
This property specifies the pause before an element is spoken. It may be given in an absolute units (seconds, milliseconds) or as a relative value - in which case it is relative to the reciprocal of the 'speed' property: if speed is 120 words per minute (ie a word takes half a second, 500 milliseconds) then a pause-before of 100% means a pause of 500 ms and a pause-before of 20% means 100ms.
Using relative units gives more robust stylesheets in the face of large changes in speed and is recommended practice.
Value: <time> | <percentage>
Initial: UA specific
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentage values: NA
This property specifies the pause after an element is spoken. Values are specified the same way as 'pause-before'.
Value: [<timee> | <percentage> ]{1,2};
Initial: UA specific
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentage values: NA
The 'pause' property is a shorthand for setting 'pause-before' and 'pause-after'. If two values are given, the first value is pause-before and the second is pause-after. If only one value is given, it applies to both properties.
Examples:
H1 { pause: 20ms } /* pause-before: 20ms; pause-after: 20ms */
H2 { pause: 30ms 40ms } /* pause-before: 30ms; pause-after: 40ms */
H3 { pause-after: 10ms } /* pause-before: ?; pause-after: 10ms */
Value: <url> | none
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentage values: NA
Auditory icons are another way to distinguish semantic elements. Sounds may be played before, and/or after the element to delimit it. The same sound can be used both before and after, using the shorthand 'cue' property.
Examples:
A {cue-before: url(bell.aiff); cue-after: url(dong.wav) }
H1 {cue-before: url(pop.au); cue-after: url(pop.au) }
H1 {cue: url(pop.au) } /* same as previous */
Value: <url> mix? | auto | none
Initial: auto
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentage values: NA
Similar to the cue-before and cue-after properties, this indicates sound to be played during an element as a background (ie the sound is mixed in with the speech). The optional 'mix' keyword means the sound inherited from the parent element's play-during property continues to play and the current element sound (pointed to by the URL) is mixed with it. If mix is not specified, the sound replaces the sound of the parent element. Auto means that the sound of the parent element continues to play (it is not restarted, which would have been the case if this property inherited) and none means that there is silence - the sound of the parent element (if any) is muted for the current element and continues after the current element.
Does the sound play once only, or loop (should probably loop)? With long icons, is the sound terminated once the element is spoken (preferred) or is the icon left to play on?
What happens with mixed-mode rendering if an element is displayed onscreen rather than being spoken, yet has a cue-during property? Do we need a property that switches between visual, aural, and other modes on a per-element basis?
Examples:
BLOCKQUOTE.sad {play-during: url(violins.aiff) }
BLOCKQUOTE Q {play-during: url(harp.wav) mix}
SPAN.quiet {play-during: none }
What happens if a stereo icon is dereferenced - how does this fit with the spatial audio properties?
Spatial audio is an important stylistic property for aural presentation. It provides a natural way to tell several voices apart, the same way we use in real life (people rarely all stand in the same spot in a room). Stereo speakers produce a lateral soundstage. Binaural headphones or the increasingly popular 5-speaker home theatre setups can generate full surround sound, and multi-speaker setups can create a true three-dimensional soundstage. VRML 2.0 also includes spatial audio (and uses the same azimuth and elevation terms, which originate in astronomy), which implies that in time consumer-priced spatial audio hardware will become more widely available.
The value is given in the range -360deg <= x < 360deg where 0deg is interpreted as directly ahead in the center of the sound stage. 90deg is to the right, 180deg behind and 270deg (or, equivalently and more conveniently, -90deg) to the left. It may also be specified using keywords:
| keyword | value | value with 'behind' |
|---|---|---|
| left-side | 270deg | 270deg |
| far-left | 300deg | 240deg |
| left | 320deg | 220deg |
| center-left | 340deg | 200deg |
| center | 0deg | 180deg |
| center-right | 20deg | 160deg |
| right | 40deg | 140deg |
| far-right | 60deg | 120deg |
| right-side | 90deg | 90deg |
This property is most likely to be implemented by mixing the same signal into different channels at differing volumes. It might also use phase shifting, digital delay, and other such techniques to provide the illusion of a soundstage. The precise means used to acheive this effect and the number of speakers used to do so are browser dependent - this property merely identifies the desired end result. Examples:
H1 { azimuth: 30deg }
TD.a { azimuth: far-right } /* 60deg */
#12 { azimuth: behind far-right } /* 120deg */
P.comment { azimith: behind } /* 180deg */
Do we need relative values like "more-to-the-right" ?
UAs should attempt to honor this request if they have resources to do so. If spatial-azimuth is specified and the output device cannot produce sounds behind the listening position, values in the rearwards hemisphere should be converted into forwards hemisphere values. One method is as follows:
The value is given in degrees in the range -90deg to 90deg. 0deg is interpreted as on the forward horizon, which loosely means level with the listener. 90deg is directly overhead and -90 is directly underneath. The precise means used to acheive this effect and the number of speakers used to do so are undefined. This property merely identifies the desired end result. UAs should attempt to honor this request if they have resources to do so. Examples:
H1 { elevation: above }
TR.a { elevation: 60deg }
TR.b { elevation: 30deg }
TR.c { elevation: level }
Value: <words-per-minute> | x-slow | slow | medium |
fast | x-fast | faster | slower
Initial: medium
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentage values: NA
Specifies the speaking rate. Note that both absolute and relative keyword values are allowed (compare with 'font-weight').
Value: [[<specific-voice> | <generic-voice>],]*
[<specific-voice> | <generic-voice>]
Initial: UA
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentage values: NA
The value is a prioritized list of voice family names (compare with 'font-family'. Suggested genric families: male, female, child.
Examples of specific voice families are: comedian, trinoids, carlos, lisa
Examples
H1 { voice-family: announcer, male }
P.part.romeo { voice-family: romeo, male }
P.part.juliet { voice-family: juliet, female }
Should the properties of these family names be described, using an @-rule, to allow better client-side matching (like fonts). If so, what are the values that describe these voice families in a way that is independent of speech synthesizer?
Value: <hertz> | x-low | low | medium | high | x-high
Initial: medium
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentage values: NA
Specifies the average pitch of the speaking voice in hertz (Hz).
Do we need more keyword values? How about 'medium-low' and medium-high'? Or 'soprano', 'mezzo-soprano', 'alto', 'tenor', 'baritone', and 'bass'?
Value: <percentage>
Initial:50%
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentage values: relative to..
Specifies variation in average pitch. A pitch range of 0% produces a flat, monotonic voice. A pitch range of 50% produces normal inflection. Pitch ranges greater than 50% produce animated voices.
Value: <percentage>
Initial: medium
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentage values: Relative to...
Specifies the level of stress (assertiveness or emphasis) of the speaking voice. English is a stressed language, and different parts of a sentence are assigned primary, secondary or tertiary stress. The value of property 'stress' controls the amount of inflection that results from these stress markers.
Increasing the value of this property results in the speech being more strongly inflected. It is in a sense dual to property :pitch-range and is provided to allow developers to exploit higher-end auditory displays.
Combine 'pitch-range' and 'stress' into one property 'inflection'?
Value: <percentage>
Initial: medium (50%)
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentage values: Relative to...
Specifies the richness (brightness) of the speaking voice. The effect of increasing richness is to produce a voice that carries --reducing richness produces a soft, mellifluous voice.
The following four properities are very prelimiary; discussion is invited:
Value: code | none
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentage values: NA
'code' indicates that punctuation such as semicolons, braces, and so on are to be spoken literally. The default value of 'none' means that punctuation is not spoken but instead is rendered naturally as various pauses.
Value: myd | dmy | ymd
Initial: (Browser-specific)
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentage values: NA
This is a request about how any dates should be spoken. month-day-year is common in the USA, while day-month-year is common in Europe and year-month-day is also used.
This would be most useful when combined with a new HTML tag used to identify dates, such as this theoretical example:
<p>The campaign started on <date value="1874-oct-21"> the twenty-first of that month</date> and finished <date value="1874-oct-28">a week later</date>
Value: digits | continous | none
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentage values: NA
Value: 24 | 12 | none
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentage values: NA
[1] Cascading Style Sheets, level 1
A review of the Spatial Audio Literature
The VRML 2.0 Sound node and comments on spatial audio in VRML
Study of nformation presentation usingmultiple perceptually distinguishable auditory streams
Speech Synthesis Markup Language
Macintosh
speech resources and applications">
Presenting
HTML Structure in Audio: User Satisfaction with Audio Hypertext
(good references)
Chris Lilley (editor)
Created: 28-Feb-1996
Last modified: $Date: 1997/03/30 16:37:29 $