RE: On using ARIA (was RE: Proposal: ALT attribute for text)

T.J. Crowder wrote:
>
> Is ARIA's "label" concept what Dr. Goss is looking for in this
> case? (Whether via `aria-label` or `aria-lablledby`.) Or
> "description" (e.g., `aria-describedby`, which doesn't appear
> to have an inline equivalent)?

Hi T.J.

Based on what I've seen and heard, yes, I think that aria-describedby
would be the best fit today. Ideally aria-describedby would point to text
on screen/on the page, which might introduce negative artifacts in other
ways (??? "Learning" content?). The text could also be placed off-screen
and referenced by aria-describedby, but it should be noted that any text
off-screen is conveyed to the AAPIs as flat (non-markedup) text - or
string text - so there is a minor issue there if there is a need to supply
richer text. (However, since he first proposed adding @alt to a span, and
@alt text is also string text, it is likely not an issue here).

I personally liked the idea however of expanding the ability to add @alt
to other attributes, including the in-line <span> element, and I think
that this idea is worth teasing out a bit more.

Dr. Goss (I believe it was he) also asked how to move this forward, to
"ask the question". The answer is to open a bug in the HTML5 bugzilla,
and/or propose it as a new feature to HTML.next (send an email with that
in the subject line to the same mailing list here).

HTH

JF

Received on Thursday, 25 August 2011 15:02:31 UTC