Re: CP, ISSUE-30: Link longdesc to role of img [Was: hypothetical question on longdesc]

David Singer writes:
> 
> On Mar 21, 2012, at 15:13 , janina@rednote.net wrote:
> > If I'm wrong, kindly explain how an external jpg can fill the functional
> > role? Surely you don't argue that jpg is part of the video?
> 
> 
> It is part of the video *element*; just as the separate tracks that are composed are.
> 


Oh, you're confusing adjectives for nouns!

OK. I'm now understanding better the disconnect in our conversation
here.

When I say "video," I'm not referring to the element--one of many HTML
elements. In my mind there's an important distinction between the
vehicle that delivers some kind of content, and that content itself.

i.e. the "video," as I use the term, can (and often does) have an
existence separate from the web. It's simply sloppy thinking to confuse
the two, imho, and I'm frankly fed up with it. There's far too much of
this kind of sloppiness in digital media that we now have to undo.

Other examples include the rather quaint ID3 tag notion that every piece
of music is a "song," and the equally unhelpful DVD Chapter concept that
comprehends no hierarchy or nesting of content organization. Back off,
you engineers, and pay attention. Had you given these kinds of answers
in one of my music history class tests, you would most assuredly not
have received passing grades.

I can well understand how someone thinking only in terms of brief You
Tube type video clips might get the delivery vehicle and the video
object confused. But, the world is much bigger than You Tube. 

Back to the current misunderstanding, then ...

As a blind woman, I want to know what the video is about. I also want to
know how the video is being offered to me on screen. I most particularly
don't want those two things confused, one for the other. Frankly, to
think I wouldn't care about the distinction between the two rather
constitutes an intellectual insult.

> David Singer
> Multimedia and Software Standards, Apple Inc.

-- 

Janina Sajka,	Phone:	+1.443.300.2200
		sip:janina@asterisk.rednote.net

Chair, Open Accessibility	janina@a11y.org	
Linux Foundation		http://a11y.org

Chair, Protocols & Formats
Web Accessibility Initiative	http://www.w3.org/wai/pf
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Received on Friday, 23 March 2012 15:54:55 UTC