Re: ISSUE-30 longdesc - Chairs Solicit Alternate Proposals or Counter-Proposals

Dear jonas:

Jonas Sicking writes:
> I'd like to write a counter proposal. The proposal would request that
> the spec specifically points out that the ARIA spec already requires
> that aria-describedby can point to rich content, including <a>-links.
> The proposal would further make pointing aria attributes (including
> aria-describedby) to elements that are "hidden" using the @hidden
> attribute legal.
> 
> I should have time to write such a proposal before June 25th.
> 

On behalf of the Text Subteam of the HTML-A11Y Task Force,

We believe an ARIA approach for providing long text descriptions of
images will necessarily fall short on several key requirements today.
Therefore, we will be reading your CP with particular interest regarding
how you adress the following three specific requirements which are of
particular concern to us:

1.)	Backward Compatibility

	We believe it is important to support users with older
	technologies in this feature. The CP we backed does this, and we
	are keenly concerned that the approach adopted for HTML 5 do
	so as well.

	http://www.w3.org/html/wg/wiki/ChangeProposals/InstateLongdesc
	http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2011May/0170.html

2.)	Display content only upon user request

	A key behavioral requirement for this feature is that the
	content of the long text description is displayed/voiced ONLY
	when the user requests it. In other words users need to know
	that a longer textual description is available, and they need to
	be able to easily request that content be presented to them--or
	not. In no instance, however, should such content be
	automatically displayed, as alt text is automatically displayed.
	This behavioral distinction is one key distinction between the
	required short and long text description mechanisms as described
	by WAI at:

	http://www.w3.org/2009/06/Text-Alternatives-in-HTML5.html

3.)	Provide a reliable and effective user experience

	Inasmuch as ARIA is new technology not yet fully or consistently
	implemented by browsers or AT, how will you propose that your
	ARIA based long text description can serve users needs
	effectively and consistently, regardless of what particular
	browser or particular AT a user may employ? In asking this
	question we note that the CP we have endorsed DOES provide
	effective and consistent support for users regardless of browser
	and AT, and we believe they deserve that kind of support.


To reiterate our concern--these are three requirements we consider
essential to a long text description mechanism which we don't believe
can currently be met using ARIA technology,

We look forward to your response.

	Janina

> / Jonas
> 
> On Wed, May 25, 2011 at 9:01 AM, Sam Ruby <rubys@intertwingly.net> wrote:
> > 'Should HTML 5 include a longdesc attribute for images'
> >
> > The current status for this issue:
> >
> > http://www.w3.org/html/wg/tracker/issues/30
> > http://dev.w3.org/html5/status/issue-status.html#ISSUE-30
> >
> > This issue was reopened on March 2nd 2011:
> >
> > http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2011Mar/0037.html
> >
> > We have a single Change Proposal to include longdesc in HTML5:
> >
> > http://www.w3.org/html/wg/wiki/ChangeProposals/InstateLongdesc
> >
> > At this time the Chairs would also like to solicit alternate Change
> > Proposals (possibly with "zero edits" as the Proposal Details), in case
> > anyone would like to advocate the status quo or a different change than the
> > specific one in the existing Change Proposal.
> >
> > The following Change Proposal can be resubmitted, but we strongly urge it to
> > be updated to reflect the new information provided before doing so:
> >
> > http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2010Feb/0393.html
> >
> > If no counter-proposals or alternate proposals are received by June 25th,
> > 2011, we will proceed to evaluate the Change Proposal that we have received
> > to date.
> >
> > - Sam Ruby
> >
> >

-- 

Janina Sajka,	Phone:	+1.443.300.2200
		sip:janina@asterisk.rednote.net

Chair, Open Accessibility	janina@a11y.org	
Linux Foundation		http://a11y.org

Chair, Protocols & Formats
Web Accessibility Initiative	http://www.w3.org/wai/pf
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Received on Wednesday, 15 June 2011 02:08:59 UTC