Re: ISSUE-30 (Longdesc) Change Proposal

John Foliot On 09-10-26 19.46:

> Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
>> I would like to propose that the longdesc attribute from HTML 4 be
>> retained in HTML 5 as an allowed attribute on images.
> 
> 
> I would like to signal support of this proposal as well.
> 
> While the PFWG *did* note that aria-describedby might likely supplant the 
> longdesc attribute, the usage & implementation of technique is sufficiently 
> different that both should be made available to content creators.


1+

>  I will 
> point to the following web page (http://www.cssquirrel.com/comic/?comic=41) 
> as an example of a caring author 'bending' aria-describedby to actually 
> deliver what longdesc does natively.
> 
> The source-code is:
> 
> <img id="imgComic" src="/images/comic/cs041.png" alt="Comic" 
> aria-describedby="ariaLink" 
> longdesc="http://www.cssquirrel.com/comicscripts/script41.htm"/>
> <a id="ariaLink" href="http://www.cssquirrel.com/comicscripts/script41.htm" 
> title="Link to a transcript of this comic">Link to a transcript of this 
> comic</a>However, the author *does not* want the "Link to a transcript..." link 
> visible on the page (due to legitimate design considerations), and thus uses 
> CSS to remove the link from the screen - what I would argue is a 
> 'work-around' (aka 'hack'). Continued support for longdesc would remove the 
> need for content authors 'working around' the design issue that 
> aria-describedby introduces.

Actually,  in order to 100% imitate the normal @longdesc behavior, 
then it seems that the anchor element in that example should also 
have had target="_blank".

That is the behavior with Internet Explorer, AFAIK. It is also the 
behavior in iCab. And now I also tested it in Opera (though Opera 
opens the page in Tab - but thanks to Opera's way of remembering 
Tab opening order, once you close the page, you will be back at 
the original image.

Just to underline that @longdesc is different from describedby.
-- 
leif halvard silli

Received on Monday, 26 October 2009 20:17:14 UTC