Re: Call for consensus - longdesc to CR

On Jul 25, 2014, at 5:39 PM, Janina Sajka <janina@rednote.net> wrote:

> accessible is better than relying on a fallback mechanism. As a
> follow-up to a previous comment, the Task Force had consequently
> previously added the following paragraph into the specification:
> 
> [[ Authors SHOULD NOT rely solely on longdesc where standards exist to provide direct, structured access. Note: (informative) For example a MathML version of mathematical content, or an SVG image that uses the accessibility features of SVG, can provide better accessibility to users with appropriate technology. In such cases, it is appropriate to use longdesc as a fallback strategy, in combination with more modern techniques. ]]
> 
> This disposition was accepted by the Task Force, and by the original
> commenter, James Craig, last year.
> 
> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2013Dec/0045.html
> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2013Dec/0067.html

I did accept that comment. I should note that my acceptance of this comment does not denote my approval of longdesc in general. I've raised other issues about its use in the context of EPUB that are as yet unaddressed or insufficiently addressed. 

>> * It's also possible for the embedded image itself to contain its own
>> accessible alternative, for instance by using ARIA in SVG. (There are
>> other, non-a11y benefits to this as well. For instance, real text
>> context in a vector image format lends itself to localization much
>> better than any raster format.)

This is relevant to my previous comment above, but Ted's point here makes me wonder: shouldn't this specification be renamed the "Longdesc Extension"? If it is truly a general "Image Description Extension", it not should also include normative instructions for how to provide these image descriptions in other formats such as accessible SVG. The informative note about embedded image descriptions in SVG could be expanded to a normative section and include an example of how to use SVG as an accessible description wrapper for both vector and raster images. 

James

Received on Tuesday, 29 July 2014 06:09:08 UTC