Re: longdesc="" in HTML5

> Why does the user even need to know there _is_ an image? Wouldn't that
>  just be taunting the user? It seems like if the image is totally described
>  elsewhere in the document, you can just use alt="" and you get an optimal
>  experience for the image-impaired user.

your opinion is born out of ignorance.

Many vision impaired users of AT are not totally blind, they can have
varying levels of vision, therefore they may well know there is an
image there, but not be able to identify it or have a guess that that
blob they see is an image or can sort of guess what the image depicts,
but the explicitly associated content helps them to positively
identify the image or make sense of the blobs or blurs. if content is
not explicitly associated it can be very difficult for vision impaired
users to correctly identify what goes with what.

--
stevef

On 08/09/2008, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> wrote:
>
>  On Mon, 8 Sep 2008, Joshue O Connor wrote:
>  > >
>  > > What is the problem that a long description is solving? A long
>  > > description isn't a need, it's a solution to a
>  > > need/requirement/problem. If the need is something like "users who
>  > > can't see bar charts need a way to have the information in the bar
>  > > chart conveyed to them", why isn't <p> sufficient?
>  >
>  > If the information /is/ on the page and this can be indicated to the
>  > user in some way via ARIA described by or similar then in principle yes,
>  > fair point. Usually @longdesc is explicitly associated with <img>. [1]
>
>
> Why does the user even need to know there _is_ an image? Wouldn't that
>  just be taunting the user? It seems like if the image is totally described
>  elsewhere in the document, you can just use alt="" and you get an optimal
>  experience for the image-impaired user.
>
>
>  --
>  Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
>  http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
>  Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'
>
>


-- 
with regards

Steve Faulkner
Technical Director - TPG Europe
Director - Web Accessibility Tools Consortium

www.paciellogroup.com | www.wat-c.org
Web Accessibility Toolbar -
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Received on Monday, 8 September 2008 19:26:03 UTC