Native Audio - HTML5 - page 100

Beyond issues with captioning, audio support in general is inconsistent among assistive
technologies. For example, some screen readers don't recognize the element at all and
simply skip it.
Further, audio accessibility, like keyboard support, is inconsistent among browsers. As
this is the case for HTML5 across the board, we recommend staying updated at http://
html5accessibility.com .
Intellectual property rights
You may have already figured out that HTML5 audio isn't a “one size fits all” solution.
But it isn't just the need for multiple file formats or inconsistent browser support that's
at issue: HTML5 does not offer any copy protection .
audio (and video , see Chapter 5 ) is as easy to save to a user's hard drive as img and,
therefore, isn't a good fit for all use cases. If Digital Rights Management (DRM) is
needed, a plug-in, not audio , is likely a better solution with how copy protection stands
today.
See Also
For more about HTML5 multimedia accessibility, the W3C wiki offers an in-depth
view of known issues and proposed solutions: http://www.w3.org/html/wg/wiki/Multi
mediaAccessibilty .
4.2 Manipulating the Audio Stream
Problem
You want to be able to control and manipulate how your HTML5 audio plays in the
browser.
Solution
As part of the specification, audio has a few attributes that give you simple and instant
control over your playback:
autoplay
Tells the browser to start playing the audio as soon as the page loads.
I hesitate to even mention this attribute because it does exactly
what it says, and is one of the most annoying, non-user-friendly
things on websites ( http://www.punkchip.com/2009/04/autoplay-is
-bad-for-all-users ) . So, while autoplay is available, don't use it.
Seriously. Don't.