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Because of the problems caused by WYSIWYG editors I have toyed with the idea of providing a much simpler interface for content editors. Markdown, BBCode, and Textile are a few possible solutions that ensure valid markup and increase the likelihood of it being semantic. The problem would be making clients accept working that way, directly editing pseudo markup. Most clients wouldn’t, so that option is ruled out.

But there is another kind of editor that is better suited than WYSIWYG for content-driven, client-edited sites - the WYSIWYM (What You See Is What You Mean) editor. In Visually Editing Semantics - What You See Is What You Mean, Peter Krantz mentions one such editor: WYMeditor.

From the WYMeditor site: Our goal is to create a XHTML strict web-based editor which will be usable on many platforms, whith the help of the Open Source Community.

There are a few limitations, of course. This is an early version, after all. Besides the issues Peter notes in his post about WYMeditor, here are a few more things I noticed: Table accessibility. There is no way to add elements and attributes (th, caption, scope, etc) needed for accessibility to data tables. Table resizing. It is possible to size tables by dragging handles. Doing so is reflected in the markup. That needs to be filtered out at some stage before saving the page to the database. Incorrect nesting of lists. When you create nested lists, the current list element is closed before the next level ul or ol is inserted.

WAI-ARIA provides the ability for developers to specify roles for document areas (and many other things).

ARIA is being implemented into many scripting libraries (such as jQuery, Dojo, YUI, and GWT). While developers can certainly implement ARIA into their advanced widgets and applications, using ARIA-supported libraries greatly simplifies the process of providing this level of accessibility.

it is not a visual problem but a word decoding, or recognition deficit.

Our ability to recognise words is thought to be based upon two slightly different “memory skills” — phonetic memory and lexical memory. Dyslexics may have a good phonetic memory — as evidenced by their tendency to spell many words phonetically — but a very poor lexical memory.

No two dyslexics demonstrate their disorder in the same manner. It can affect boys and girls equally, across all socioeconomic classes worldwide.

“A combination of abilities and difficulties that affect the learning process in one or more of reading, spelling and writing.

Accompanying weaknesses may be identified in areas of speed of processing, short-term memory, sequencing and organisation, auditory and/or visual perception, spoken language and motor skills. It is particularly related to mastering and using written language, which may include alphabetic, numeric and musical notation.”

the more complex the written language is, the greater the likely percentage of people who will have difficulty reading it.

As many as 1 in 10 people in the UK are dyslexic.

Worldwide, it is likely that the number of dyslexics is likely to be equal to, if not significantly larger than, the number of visually impaired people.

poor short-term memory and organisational skills will mean that site navigation and page organisation become more important.

high contrast text difficult or impossible to read. The phrases I’ve heard most often are “the text keeps moving” or “the words seem to dance on the page.”