- From: Laura Carlson <laura.lee.carlson@gmail.com>
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2012 06:34:44 -0500
- To: Joshue O Connor <joshue.oconnor@cfit.ie>
- Cc: HTML Accessibility Task Force <public-html-a11y@w3.org>, w3c-wai-pf@w3.org, "Gregory J. Rosmaita" <gregory.rosmaita@gmail.com>
Hi Josh, > I also like the idea of @longdesc being automatically read on focus (after > any other important link info was read etc) and then stopped on any other > keypress. Rather like the way that aria-describedby is currently > implemented. I think that is elegant. I would not agree that forcing a long description upon a user is elegant. Gregory J. Rosmaita has previously pointed out the difference between terse and verbose descriptors. In fact just last month he wrote the following to me in a private email. It is reprinted here with his permission: QUOTE ever since i first started working with the W3C, i've been attempting to explain that while a picture may be worth a thousand words, that doesn't mean i want to hear all one-thousand words all at once or at this particular moment... i do, however, absolutely need to know that: 1) the author has inserted an image here, so it is probably relevant to the content (the purpose of "alt"); 2) that there is a long description of the image available should i need/want it; 3) that i can use familiar structural navigational features and commands to obtain the description's contents, with the ability to stop speech and review in detail (i.e. by character) or by structure (i.e. current list item, next list item, list item x out of y) the structured content used to provide the long description; and 4) the confidence that when i am satisfied with the amount of information obtained from the long description, i can and will return to the exact place in the main content from which i initiated exposition of the long description. longdesc fulfills all my requirements and needs, and i fully support its retention in HTML5. UNQUOTE Best Regards, Laura -- Laura L. Carlson
Received on Monday, 17 September 2012 11:35:12 UTC