Re: [text] minutes: Text Alternatives Subgroup 2011-04-18 [draft]

Hi Sam,

Thanks for your email verifying that from the Chairs' perspective the
rejected proposals did not communicate specific use cases and supply
sufficient details.

> The general thrust I gather from these minutes is "we need more time to
> properly deprecate longdesc".  If that indeed is the case

It is not the case. I guess you didn't read the last part of my
message. It said:

"As for longdesc, ARIA is not viable:
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/wiki/ChangeProposals/InstateLongdesc#aria-describedby
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/wiki/ChangeProposals/InstateLongdesc#aria-describedat
"

"...The simple truth is that most web designers are not going to learn ARIA..."

"...ARIA for longdesc is also redundant. It reinvents the wheel..."

" >   there is a body of @longdesc content in existance already

Yes.

But beyond this, it is just not content. longdesc is also recognized
by existing authoring tools, user agents, assistive technologies,
educational material, etc. It has a critical support base that has
taken a decade to build and would probably take another to rebuild
with something else. Something new would setback progress.

Reasons why longdesc should be reinstated into HTML:
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/wiki/ChangeProposals/InstateLongdesc#Conclusion:_longdesc_Should_be_Included_in_HTML5

These are all detailed in the change proposal.

>   <oedipus> doesn't HTML5 have a mandate about backwards compatibility

It is one of the original design principles, Gregory. HTML is keeping
things like <u> and <i> and <b>. So it is illogical to be obsoleting
longdesc and summary.

>   RS: the thing I had the biggest issue with is that I agree that
>   dumping @longdesc completely is a problem
>
>   we need a deprecation strategy

On this we disagree.

We need to improve longdesc. We are attempting to do this by improving
the spec text.
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lcarlson/research/ld-spec-text.html

Ideas to improve the two bullet points that start with:

* Conformance checkers and authoring tools...
* User agents...

would be very much appreciated. Thanks."

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2011Apr/0163.html

Best Regards,
Laura
--
Laura L. Carlson

Received on Tuesday, 19 April 2011 17:11:20 UTC