- From: Jonas Sicking <jonas@sicking.cc>
- Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2011 14:13:54 -0700
- To: Laura Carlson <laura.lee.carlson@gmail.com>
- Cc: Geoff Freed <geoff_freed@wgbh.org>, "public-html@w3.org" <public-html@w3.org>, HTML Accessibility Task Force <public-html-a11y@w3.org>
As far as I can see aria-describedby addresses this use case. I believe ARIA is no explicitly supported by HTML5 drafts. / Jonas On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 12:21 PM, Laura Carlson <laura.lee.carlson@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Geoff, > > This sounds like a very important use case to add to the change > proposal to reinstate longdesc into HTML. > > Thank you very much for this new information. > > Best Regards, > Laura > > On 2/25/11, Geoff Freed <geoff_freed@wgbh.org> wrote: >> >> Hi, everyone: >> >> Benetech, NCAM and the DAISY Consortium are currently collaborating on a >> five-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Education to help find >> ways to make image descriptions in textbooks for print-disabled students >> more effective and less costly. You can read all about the project at >> http://diagramcenter.org/ . >> >> Regarding the long-running discussions over image descriptions: any new >> version of HTML that lacks a mechanism for conveying long image descriptions >> to users will be a severe blow to blind, visually impaired and >> print-disabled users worldwide, as well as a huge setback to decades of work >> done in the accessibility industry. In addition to the arguments already >> offered on these lists in favor of a long-description mechanism, bear in >> mind that long descriptions are typically produced after the original >> content has been published. They are often likely be produced by volunteers >> (via a variety of methods, including crowdsourcing) and third parties who >> are contracted to create sophisticated descriptions for complex images (such >> as those found in science and math textbooks). This is particularly true in >> the case of online textbooks and digital textbooks. Without @longdesc, it >> will be very difficult to incorporate descriptions into new or existing >> textbooks or other content. >> >> Furthermore, those hosted descriptions will be living documents which may >> need to be improved upon in a collaborative and moderated fashion. This is >> particularly true in the case of e-books- volumes which have already been >> downloaded by users could easily benefit from new, expanded or otherwise >> updated image descriptions. >> >> If we want HTML to be a foundational standard for reading technologies, such >> as e-books, then it is critical that @longdesc continue to be supported. >> Even if @longdesc is reinstated as an interim technology while something new >> is developed to replace it, it is still the best technology that the DIAGRAM >> project (not to mention textbook publishers, universities and others around >> the world) can build upon today to accomplish our objectives around >> improving the accessibility of images in digital textbooks. >> >> Geoff Freed >> WGBH/NCAM, on behalf of the DIAGRAM project > > > -- > Laura L. Carlson > >
Received on Tuesday, 15 March 2011 21:14:57 UTC