Re: Should SC 2.4.4 require Link text or Accessible Name, rather than enclosing sentence etc.?

On 06/07/2016 15:44, David MacDonald wrote:
> I think now that there is easy technology to provide an accessible name
> that describes the destination of a link, we should consider removing
> the "link in context" exception from 2.4.4.
>
> In WCAG 2, we originally wanted a screen reader user to be able to pull
> up a list of links and know where they all go. But a compromise was
> reached when John Slatin said "I can, if necessary, hear the whole
> sentence in JAWS without moving focus from the link"

This would also heavily depend on the actual structure around/near the 
link. More often than not the links that lack clarity aren't part of a 
sentence/paragraph, but have some larger structure (positioned divs etc) 
around them, where context isn't as clear-cut and easy to access unless 
requiring actual "go back to some content before the link and work out 
what it's about"

So in principle agree that the exception is slightly flawed, and would 
love to see this tightened in 2.1.

P

> With that was born the idea the programmatic determination included the
> sentence, the table cell of a row etc, that we find currently in WCAG 2.
> Unfortunately, our definition never  solved the problem of a screen
> reader user pulling up a list of links and seeing "learn more", "read
> more" etc...
>
> WAI Aria has solved the issue, with aria-label, and aria-labelledby
> which show up in links list in Screen Readers.
>
> We can solve this in 2.1 by removing the example and in the
> understanding make it clear that "presented to users in different
> modalities" means the Accessible Name.
>
>
> ​===​
> programmatically determined link context
> ​===​
>
>
> additional information that can be programmatically determined from
> relationships with a link, combined with the link text, and presented to
> users in different modalities
>
> Example: In HTML, information that is programmatically determinable from
> a link in English includes text that is in the same paragraph, list, or
> table cell as the link or in a table header cell that is associated with
> the table cell that contains the link.
>
> Note: Since screen readers interpret punctuation, they can also provide
> the context from the current sentence, when the focus is on a link in
> that sentence.
>
>
> ​===​
> programmatically determined (programmatically determinable)
> ​===​
>
>
> determined by software from author-supplied data provided in a way that
> different user agents, including assistive technologies, can extract and
> present this information to users in different modalities
>
> Example 1: Determined in a markup language from elements and attributes
> that are accessed directly by commonly available assistive technology.
>
> Example 2: Determined from technology-specific data structures in a
> non-markup language and exposed to assistive technology via an
> accessibility API that is supported by commonly available assistive
> technology.
>
>
>
>
> Cheers,
> David MacDonald
>
>
>
> *Can**Adapt**Solutions Inc.*
>
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-- 
Patrick H. Lauke

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Received on Wednesday, 6 July 2016 14:52:24 UTC