- From: Leif Halvard Silli <xn--mlform-iua@xn--mlform-iua.no>
- Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2011 15:23:51 +0200
- To: Laura Carlson <laura.lee.carlson@gmail.com>
- Cc: HTML WG <public-html@w3.org>
Laura Carlson, Fri, 17 Jun 2011 13:27:55 -0500: > On 6/16/11, Charles McCathieNevile rote: >> On Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:54:07 +0200, Matthew Turvey wrote: >> >>> WebAIM recommends using a duplicate link if using >>> longdesc. Longdesc is not available to all users, so you cannot rely >>> on it to deliver a "a reliable and effective user experience." >> >> I understand the recommendation for a duplicate link. > > Yes. In other words, redundant link text attempts to mitigate damages > of user agents that do not yet have a long description feature built > directly into them. Because longdesc it is not yet supported by some > web browsers, some sites provide a fallback method of providing a full > description via redundant link text. D-link duplication is demotivating, though. Not so much the fact that *data* is duplicated as for the fact that it *only* hurts those users that *do* use an AT that *do* support @longdesc: It is only that group of users that are presented with the link twice, once as longdesc and once "heuristically" (or "stumbled upon in the text"). That said: as it stands, to use @aria-describedby instead, would cause the link (text) to be read twice even without data duplication: once when referenced from aria-describedby and once "heuristically" (or "stumbled upon in the text"). > With proper implementation in > user agents these could all be solely longdesc. In addition, these > types of link text approaches don't semantically or programmatically > tie the description to image, whereas a longdesc does. For @aria-describedby, if it points to a link, then there is a form a programmatic tie. However, there is no *semantic* tie. Even if the link is presented as link and simply as plain text, it is not possible to know *why* the aria-describedby pionts to that link. -- Leif Halvard Silli
Received on Saturday, 18 June 2011 13:24:30 UTC