Re: dropping longdesc attribute

This is my first message to this mailing list so be gentle :)

I’m in favor dropping @longdesc because I think there are better  
alternatives. First I have a few considerations, when @longdesc would  
make sense.

1) Images which are showcased and where you need every detail.
2) Academic graphics and graphs.

There’s no use using @longdesc with other images either because there  
description with @alt is sufficient or because surrounding Elements  
give enough impression or because it's just plain decorative and  
should have been done with CSS but wasn’t.

My solution would be dropping the @longdesc in favor for  
a@rel=longdesc. This would be consistent in all current, past and  
future browsers eliminating any accessibility problems and give  
screen readers something they can rely on.

To make it more universal you could even name it alternative (like  
stylesheets) to provide alternative ways for captchas, for example.

One major drawback is, that the image itself can’t be a link to e.g.  
another image (like in galleries), which can or cannot be acceptable  
considering that I think the most links on images are some kind of  
@longdesc at the moment.

Eric Eggert
http://yatil.de

Received on Monday, 25 June 2007 15:32:56 UTC