Re: dropping longdesc attribute

Hi everyone,

I think the fact that something potentially useful (in the case of  
the longdesc for people with special needs) is not widely used or not  
used properly, should not be a reason to abandon it.
Validation is not used widely either, -to my knowledge about 95% of  
html out there is invalid, and none of us would consider dropping it.

The longdesc may not be used because people don't know about it and  
it's proper use. Why don't we come up with a brief explanation eg. as  
part of the "Tips for Webmasters".

An HTML editor which is widely used at Stanford prompts users to  
enter alt and longdesc when inserting images etc.  It is an  
accessibility issue.

Regards,
Monika


Monika Trebo
Stanford Genome Technology Center
855 California Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Phone: (650) 812-2001
Fax: (650) 812-1975
mtrebo@stanford.edu

On Jun 22, 2007, at 5:06 AM, Lachlan Hunt wrote:

>
> Laura Carlson wrote:
>> Anyway, what rationale for dropping longdesc?
>
> IIRC, the reason for not including it was because very few authors  
> ever use it and, when it is used, it's not used properly.  More  
> research on the issue is welcome.  In particular, evidence of  
> significant real world usage that provides a practical benefit to  
> users would be good.
>
> -- 
> Lachlan Hunt
> http://lachy.id.au/
>

Received on Saturday, 23 June 2007 20:59:39 UTC