Re: Should 2.4.4 require Link text or ACCNAME, rather than enclosing sentence etc...

I disagree with this change. There are places (data tables are the prime 
example) where the context of the table (when marked up correctly) 
conveys all the information which is needed to determine what the link 
does. If you add all of this information to the link text then you get 
double reading when navigating within the table. In these situations the 
link only makes any sense in context of the other information in the 
table. Expecting all of that information to be replicated in the link 
text would be a step backwards for usability.

Regards,

James


On 7/6/2016 7:45 AM, 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"
>
> 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.*
>
> Tel:  613.235.4902
>
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-- 
Regards, James

Oracle <http://www.oracle.com>
James Nurthen | Principal Engineer, Accessibility
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