Re: support notes are incorrect

On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 3:44 AM, <noreply@w3.org> wrote:
>> Name: steve faulkner
>> Email: faulkner.steve@gmail.com
>> Affiliation: TPG
>> Document: TD
>> Item Number: H45
>> Part of Item: User Agent Notes
>> Comment Type: technical
>> Summary of Issue: support notes are incorrect
>> Comment (Including rationale for any proposed change):
>> the user agent notes state:
>>
>> "Some older assistive technologies do not support the longdesc attribute."
>> This is factually incorrect. A number of current versions of assistive
>> technology software does not support does not support longdesc including
>> VoiceOver 4.0
>> NVDA 2012
>>
>>
>> Proposed Change:
>> JAWS 13 - supports
>> Window Eyes 7.5 - supports
>> VoiceOver 4.0 - does not support
>> NVDA 2012 - does not support
>> Orca (latest)
>
>
> ================================
> Response from the Working Group
> ================================
> Thank you for this information. We have updated the user agent notes to say:
>
> Voiceover 4.0, NVDA 2012, Orca 2.32.0, and Zoomtext 10.0 (and their earlier
> versions) do not support the <code>longdesc</code> attribute. JAWS 13 and
> WindowEyes 7.5 do support this attribute, but some older versions do not.
>
> Loretta Guarino Reid, WCAG WG Co-Chair
> Gregg Vanderheiden, WCAG WG Co-Chair
> Michael Cooper, WCAG WG Staff Contact

H45 should also mention how poorly supported longdesc is generally,
including in current browsers. Only Opera and iCab currently provide
direct access to longdesc links for all users.

Something along the lines of Steve Faulkner's message [1] to
HTML-A11Y-TF should be included in the support notes so authors are
aware of the current problems with using longdesc:

- Support for longdesc in browsers and AT is poor and has been so for
many years.

- Adding a longdesc without an alternative method of access to the
long description results in many users with disabilities being unable
to access the content or even being aware that the content is there.

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2012Mar/0063.html

Received on Sunday, 1 April 2012 14:24:06 UTC