Re: 48-Hour Consensus Call: ARIA-DescribedAT & Longdesc

On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 11:38:44 +0200, Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis  
<bhawkeslewis@googlemail.com> wrote:

> I believe assessments of the likelihood of user agents implementing
> @longdesc should (and will) enter into HTML WG's consideration of
> whether to recommend @longdesc to authors. I think Opera's inclusion
> of a long description context menu item during HTML5's development
> period was a positive step here, but it seems unlikely we will see
> additional implementations before the WG tries to decide Issue 30. The
> response from other user agent vendors has been lukewarm at best.
> Recommending without caveat that authors produce long descriptions
> that lots of users cannot easily access could be a dereliction of
> duty. So if we want to push to make @longdesc conforming, we should
> arguably also be pushing to:
>
>    - Suggest in authoring guidance that authors make long descriptions
> discoverable using visible webpage elements.

Actually, we should be pushing user agents to make long descriptions  
discoverable. The best native browser implementation of this was the "not  
all that great" iCab version, which changed the cursor. JAWS on the other  
hand manages it perfectly well for its user interaction. I don't think  
that my effort on TellMeMore is especially brilliant (nor was it intended  
to be) but it at least gives some hints at ways forward. I think SIlvia  
had some more ideas too...

I think we can confidently say that discoverability is something that  
longdesc needs to work well. Since I don't think we are in a good position  
to sput authoratively on how that discoverability should work, I don't  
think we should try to spec it much, instead looking for innovative  
implementations to show the way.

cheers

-- 
Charles 'chaals' McCathieNevile  Opera Software, Standards Group
     je parle français -- hablo español -- jeg kan noen norsk
http://my.opera.com/chaals       Try Opera: http://www.opera.com

Received on Tuesday, 3 April 2012 12:29:58 UTC