Mozilla Moves to Implement Longdesc

The following news overnight from Mozilla ...

> --- Comment #59 from Jennifer Morrow [:Boriss] (Firefox UX) <jboriss@mozilla.com> 2013-05-29 16:05:00 PDT ---
> After further looking into this, we've decided to support the longdesc
> attribute in Firefox.  
> 
> While we've considered longdesc in the past, the landscape has changed and
> there are reasons to support it now.  For one, the W3C validator now supports
> it, making it more likely to be supported across browsers.  Authors who want to
> make pages accessible may not be able to rely on longdesc on any browser, but
> there isn't presently another standardized option available.  And, importantly,
> it can be implemented without disrupting the user experience of users who don't
> require it.  Underscoring all of this is that the Mozilla project is a
> community, and our actions must reflect the needs and wants of the community.
> 
> There is a chicken and egg issue here, as Alastair notes in comment 20. 
> Supporting longdesc means that the door to wider adoption is open, and perhaps
> authors will surprise us with innovative uses of this attribute once they feel
> freer to do so.  And, perhaps in time better solutions to some of the problems
> longdesc tackles will emerge.  While we'll always be open to browser
> improvements, particularly in the accessibility space, we shouldn't ignore a
> ready solution because it's not perfect.
> 
> I've opened Bug 877453 for the implementation of the longdesc attribute and am
> dup'ing this one.
> 
> *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 877453 ***
> 
> Referenced Bugs:
> 
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=877453
> [Bug 877453] Expose longdesc in image context menus
> 

-- 

Janina Sajka,	Phone:	+1.443.300.2200
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Linux Foundation Fellow
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The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Chair,	Protocols & Formats	http://www.w3.org/wai/pf
	Indie UI			http://www.w3.org/WAI/IndieUI/

Received on Thursday, 30 May 2013 13:38:10 UTC