Re: why are we pursuing this idea? (was: Implementation Details request on Issue 204 Decision)

On Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 11:50 PM, Leif Halvard Silli
<xn--mlform-iua@xn--mlform-iua.no> wrote:
> * He also says that 'If we do implement this, it will only be as a
> temporary solution because of the lack of support in current accessible
> browsers'. This is a technical argument. But it sounds like a incorrect
> technical argument. At least today - 2 years later - where we hear that
> Firefox *does* support @longdesc, in the accessibility API - which I
> assume that NVDA would use.

I think by support James means "discoverable to *all* users, not just
users of assistive technology". So just having a hook in the
accessibility API doesn't count.

Interestingly, James notes that users can access some @longdesc instances:

"you can already access longdesc for non-linked, non-clickable images
with NVDA in Firefox if you press enter on the image. The presence of
longdesc is not reported, however."

My guess is this is because opening the longdesc is exposed by Firefox
as an action, and the enter just triggers whatever primary action is
associated with the accessibility node in focus.

--
Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis

Received on Tuesday, 21 August 2012 23:00:52 UTC