Re: How did the summary attribute become part of HTML 4.0?

David Poehlman On 09-08-08 11.49:

> On Aug 7, 2009, at 8:16 PM, Leif Halvard Silli wrote:

	[...]

>> But it has been pointed out to me that only expert AT users
>> access the @title information.

	[...]

> I would just want to record here that it is no longer necessary
> to be an expert at user to access title, it's only necessary to
> use a mac with voice over and the jurry might be out on whether
> that means you have to be an expert but my thinking is no.



The source I pointed to - one blind authoring and AT usage expert 
- told me that sighted Web designers erroneously (when compared to 
how things work "in the wild") thought that the @title attribute 
was very important to use in order to create accessible (for AT 
users) Web pages. Only power users make any use of @title - the 
same source told. (This seems to be a common gotcha story to tell 
non-AT experts, btw.)

I suppose that in all user groups, including amongst AT users, 
there are power users (aka "expert users") and "vanilla" users, so 
this made sense to me. A power users is one who is a bit nerdy and 
who knows how to circumvent problems and has the time to do so.

It is of course interesting if average VoiceOver users, unlike 
e.g. average Jaws users, feel that @title has a value increasing 
effect. Although non-VoiceOver users might get saved from much 
text repetition - e.g. @alt text is often duplicated in @title - 
because of their "failure" to offer @title easily.

OTOH, last I tried - several months ago - VoiceOver did not 
support @summary - except when I used Opera instead of Safari (or, 
perhaps, if you were a power users=. I'm sure you can tell me if 
this is still the case.
-- 
leif halvard silli

Received on Saturday, 8 August 2009 13:07:39 UTC