Re: dropping longdesc attribute

On 6/23/07, Denis Boudreau <dboudreau@webconforme.com> wrote:
> Longdesc are essential for screen readers to provide long
> descriptions for graphics that otherwise could not be described
> because the nature of their content is just too complicated for a
> simple alt attribute.

And such images are rare on the internet. We can't use data about all
the image to check if complicated ones are accessible.

> This is a crucial feature for the benefit of
> visually impaired users working with screen readers. Longdesc
> provides the ONLY mean available to describe, in a non-obtrusive way,
> the nature of an image in an external file while remaining invisible
> to typical, unimpaired users and user agents. Screen readers are
> finally getting it's implementation right and we're dropping it?

Reading that, I wonder if the nature of the target element by the
longdesc is not a little bit underspecified. If i indicate for a Mona
Lisa picture to @longdesc="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Joconde",
is it still usefull for screen readers ? Perhaps the linked page
should only contain the longdesc and no menu, footer, ...

-- 
Olivier G.
http://www.lespacedunmatin.info/blog/