[Bug 10455] Mint a describedby attribute for the img element

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=10455





--- Comment #35 from Edward O'Connor <hober0@gmail.com>  2010-08-30 21:27:41 ---
(In reply to comment #11)

I asked:
> > My question is, in what specific ways, if any, would such a
> > describedby="" attribute differ from longdesc=""?

John replied:
> 1) It would have a 'universal' control that all users, not just blind users,
> could use to easily access extended descriptions. We could *mandate* that all
> browsers [... various UI proposals ...]

Whether or not we should mandate any browser UI aside, this doesn't appear to
be a difference between the proposed attribute describedby="" and the previous
attribute longdesc="". (Same response to your #2.)

> 3) Currently aria-describedby can only be linked to IDREFs, whereas the new
> attribute must be able to be linked to both IDREFS and URI's

That's a difference between describedby="" and aria-describedby="", not a
difference between describedby="" and longdesc="". AFAICT, this is evidence in
favor of the thesis that describedby="" is just longdesc="" with a new name.

> And now, I will ask you a specific question: do you disagree with any of the
> articulated user requirements? If yes, which user-requirement do you disagree
> with, and why?

1. Modulo quibbling about the meaning of "programmatic," this seems fine to me,
though I think we should encourage such descriptions to be internal to the
document when possible.

2. I don't think we should mandate UA interface features in this way.

3. Not sure what this actually requires.

4. I don't think we should mandate AT interface features in this way.

5 has two parts. I don't think I understand the first sentence. I don't have an
opinion on the second one.

6. Not crazy about it, but I could live with it. (Generally, like I said re:
req 1 above, I think in-page descriptions are to be preferred over external
descriptions.)

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Received on Monday, 30 August 2010 21:27:44 UTC