- From: Silvia Pfeiffer <silviapfeiffer1@gmail.com>
- Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:04:51 +1100
- To: Sam Ruby <rubys@intertwingly.net>
- Cc: public-html@w3.org
On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 12:28 PM, Sam Ruby <rubys@intertwingly.net> wrote: > On 03/14/2012 08:27 PM, Silvia Pfeiffer wrote: >> >> Dear Chairs, >> >> May I suggest that the resolution of this issue is dependent on the >> resolution of several other issues and discussions currently under >> way. I therefore propose to delay dealing with this issue until such >> other issues are resolved. This includes in particular the @longdesc >> discussion. >> >> In my mind, it is possible that the HTML WG decides that there is >> sufficient need for a general mechanism to add off-page textual >> representations to certain complex elements to HTML5, elements such as >> canvas, img, video, audio, table, or figure. If such a general >> mechanism were added - which could be called @longdesc or @href or >> @transcript - such a mechanism would fulfill the needs of this issue. > > > Can you cite any existing proposal that, if adopted, would address this > need? The need for a generic attribute to provide linked lengthy text representations for complex elements has been emerging. John's change proposal alludes to this need when referring to @longdesc [1] as a solution for <video>/<audio> transcript links. The proposed @describedat attribute which is mentioned in Laura's longdesc CP [2], and discussed at WAI and in the accessibility TF points to the same need, ePub even having pressed forward with a specification[3]. There is a similar need for other elements, too, e.g. <canvas>[4], <table>[5], <object>/<embed> [6]. I'm sure if we take the time to analyse this properly, we'll come up with other complex elements that could be enhanced with such linked transcription resources, too. There isn't currently a proposal for such an attribute. One reason is that we've mainly looked at solving these problems with each element individually and haven't really abstracted this as a common problem yet. Another reason is that @longdesc could be expanded for such other elements, but right now it's not even conformant. Basically, we've not had this discussion yet. This is why I am asking for more time on this issue for <video>. Regards, Silvia. [1] http://www.w3.org/html/wg/wiki/ChangeProposal/Issue194 "Should [the longdesc issue] be resolved by reinstating @longdesc in HTML5, the use of @longdesc to address the use-cases envisioned would likely be sufficient, making this proposal redundant." [2] http://www.w3.org/html/wg/wiki/ChangeProposals/InstateLongdesc "Protocols and Formats Working Group (PFWG) has discussed introducing a new ARIA attribute - aria-describedat - as a possible addition to a future ARIA specification (ARIA 1.1) for external descriptions." [3] http://diagramcenter.org/standards-and-practices/epubdescribedat.html [4] http://www.w3.org/html/wg/wiki/AddedElementCanvas "For animated graphics demos, a description of the demo could be enough." [5] http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/aural.html#img-table1 - has an example with a off-page link that is positioned next to the table in a visually non-intuitive manner [6] http://webaim.org/techniques/flash/text - exemplifies the need for long text alternatives for flash, which is used through object/embed
Received on Thursday, 15 March 2012 03:05:40 UTC