WCAG 2.0 Comment Submission

Name: steve faulkner
Email: steven.faulkner@nils.org.au
Affiliation: 
Document: TD
Item Number: H33: Supplementing link text with the title attribute...
Part of Item: Applicability
Comment Type: TE
Comment (Including rationale for any proposed change):
2.4.4 Each link is programmatically associated with text from which its purpose can be determined. (Level 2) 

“The intent of this success criterion is to help users understand the purpose of each link in the content”

The intent of the criterion is not met by the use of technique H33. 

Critisisms of Technique H33

“User agents will display a tool tip when the mouse hovers above an anchor element containing a title attribute.”

1.	Current User agents do not provide access to title attribute content via the keyboard [1] 

a.	Will result in content not being accessible by non-mouse users who do not use screen reading software.

b.	Contradicts the intent of Guideline 2.1 Make all functionality operable via a keyboard interface. 

c.	Contradicts the intent of Guideline 4.2 Ensure that content is accessible or provide an accessible alternative, because the technique does not include advice that an accessible alternative version of the content within the title attribute be provided.



2.	The “tool tip” in some commonly used user agents disapears after a short period of time (approximately 5 seconds) [1] 

a.	Will result in difficulty accessing title attribute content for those users who can use a mouse, but have fine motor skill impairment.

b.	May result in reading difficulties of title attribute content for users with cognitive/learning impairment.

c.	Contradicts the intent of Guideline 2.2 Allow users to control time limits on their reading or interaction.

3.	Presentation of title attribute content cannot be resized or colours changed via the user agent or by the content author.

a.	The foreground and background colours of the “tool tip” cannot be modified by the user via the user agent.

b.	The size of the text within a “tool tip” cannot be modifed by a user via the user agent.

c.	Contradicts the intent of Guideline 1.3 Ensure that information and structure can be separated from presentation

4.	The placement and location of the “tool tip” cannot be modified by users.

a.	This results in some screen magnifier users being unable to access meaningful portions of the title attribute content, because the “tool tip” cannot be fully displyed within the view port [2].



Assistive technology issues

Three pieces of assistive technology are cited in the “User Agent and Assistive Technology Support Notes” [4]. Two of those cited do not provide a practical or functionally equivalent  method for users to access the information within the title attribute of links.

JAWS 7.0

“JAWS 7.0 will speak either the link text or the title attribute for a link depending upon a JAWS setting. This setting can be changed temporarily or permanently within JAWS.”

Discussion

JAWS does not provide a practical or functionally equivalent method for users to hear the content of a link’s title attribute

If a user has JAWS set to read “Title text” for links they cannot access the “screen text”  without changing the JAWS verbosity settings (This process involves a minimum of 7 keystrokes / keystroke combinations and in 5 out of 7 tests caused JAWS to start reading again from the top of the page, thus losing focus on the link that had a potential “title text”.). 

So in Example 2 (

Table 1) of technique H33 a JAWS user with verbosity set to “use title” for links would hear 

“link opens in new window” 

, but would not hear 

“Subscribe to email notifications about breaking news”

, nor would they be given any indication that this additional information was available and could not access the information without going through these steps:

In order for a user to change the verbosity setting for links a user must:

“press INSERT+V to open the Adjust JAWS Verbosity dialog box. Select an option with the arrow keys and then press SPACEBAR or use the Execute button to cycle through the available settings. Press ENTER to accept your changes and close the dialog box. “ [3]

Conversely if the user had the default “screen text” settings they would not hear the information \"link opens in new window\" nor would they be given any indication that this additional information was available.

 



Table 1 H33: Supplementing link text with the title attribute - Example 2 

<a href=\"http://www.newsorg.com.com/subscribe.html\"      target=\"_blank\"      title=\"link opens in new window\">     Subscribe to email notifications about breaking news</a>



Homepage Reader 3.04 

“Home Page Reader 3.04 will speak the title attribute of any element with focus when the control-shift-F1 keys are pressed simultaneously.”

·	This is not a documented feature of HPR 3.04. The  documentation in reference to this states that the URL of the page will be read out (no mention of the title attribute).

·	The title attribute content is read out, but after the URL of the current page is read.

·	The user has no way to know that there is supplementary information available unless he/she activates the key combination. It is totally impractical to expect users to query each link to find supplementary information.



References

1.	Display of the TITLE attribute in some common browsers - http://www.sf.id.au/WE05/#slide7

2.	Screen Magnifier users - http://www.sf.id.au/WE05/#slide12

3.	JAWS 6 documentation - JAWS 6.20 documentation [EXE file, 1.57 MB]

4.	Technique H33 - Supplementing link text with the title attribute http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-WCAG20-TECHS-20060427/Overview.html#H33



Proposed Change:
Remove technique H33

Received on Friday, 19 May 2006 06:00:27 UTC