Please Consider What it Means Switching Google Docs to Use Canvas

From Brandon Keith Biggs: @BrandonKBiggs Re: Please Consider What it Means Switching Google Docs to Use Canvas

Hello,

I just read this article:

https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2021/05/Google-Docs-Canvas-Based-Rendering-Update.html

Stating that Google Docs is switching to a canvas renderer.

I would like to respectfully request Google not do this and make Chrome robust enough to handle the HTML rendering functionality needed to run Google Docs. Although there is an accessible version of Google docs that can be accessed through ctrl+alt+z, it is not Canvas-based.

Google influences the wider community of developers very strongly, and since the text editor tool underlying Google Docs is not open-source, other developers will start attempting to copy the Google Docs experience and forget screen reader accessibility, even for applications unrelated to Google Docs, like website GUI creation interfaces, or markdown renderers.

I have never liked the separate experience Google drive users have when using Gsheets, Google Slides, or Google Docs, and this move to canvas means 100% inaccessibility for developers wishing to copy what Google is doing.

Already, 98% of websites fail WCAG:

https://webaim.org/projects/million/

This is going to accelerate this trend. We can see through the above link that inaccessible websites are increasing in number, despite the increasing tools to help developers make their sites more accessible.

Can Google please either release a text editing library that uses this canvas rendering with an accessible version,

Or work to make Chrome handle a semantic version of Google docs, rather than surrendering to the non semantic temptation of canvas.

This move by Google is an accelerator to a less accessible world.

Thank you,

Brandon Keith Biggs

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/accessible/CAKAWQkXypRzFvAf9iR9X%2BhOazXEWb%3DR330b_oZMa73NXMzRagw%40mail.gmail.com