- From: John Foliot <john@foliot.ca>
- Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2012 14:57:30 -0800
- To: "'Silvia Pfeiffer'" <silviapfeiffer1@gmail.com>
- Cc: "'HTML Accessibility Task Force'" <public-html-a11y@w3.org>, "'HTML WG'" <public-html@w3.org>
Hi Silvia, Silvia Pfeiffer wrote: > > It is good to see more support for long description > type features in screenreaders. But let's be specific here Silvia - support for @longdesc. Not some un-named, un-specified mechanism, but rather an existing, valid HTML4/XHTML1 attribute. If nothing it strengthens the case that if HTML5 is supposed to be backward compatible then it is time to recognize @longdesc as a valid attribute in the markup language. > > That actually supports the argument made in [1] that we > need a screen-reader only long description attribute (such > as the proposed @aria-describedat) and should mark > @longdesc deprecated for HTML5 and obsolete when > @aria-describedat has arrived. I personally (and I think others) are not fans of making crystal ball predictions on what may happen sometime in the future. There is no justifiable reason to make @longdesc deprecated now or into the immediate future, as even if/when a future "better technique" emerges it will take a number of years to see wide-spread adoption and take-up by end users (just ask all those IE 8 users out there...). The Accessibility Task Force are moving forward with proceeding on Chaals' Extension Specification (http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/html-proposals/raw-file/b63325998cc1/longdesc1/longde sc.html), and it is my understanding that once it reaches FPWD status that this will remove the ambiguity around @longdesc's fate in HTML5. With due respect to Mr. Mazzoni, @longdesc is NOT a feature for "web developers", @longdesc is a feature for web consumers. I read his opinion when you first posted it, and again just now, and I respectfully suggest that he's missing a critical point in this debate, and is looking at this issue strictly from a developer's perspective. With commercial content creators (for example Pearson Publishing) and US Federally funded initiatives (NCAM's Diagram Project - http://ncam.wgbh.org/experience_learn/educational_media/diagram) producing effective and valuable long text descriptions delivered via @longdesc today, and, as evidenced by yesterday's NVDA announcement, more and more practical support in screen reading tools, it strikes me as counter-productive to be saying in HTML5 that we're gonna toss this baby out as soon as the new bathwater is ready, which will be soon, but we don't know when. I would prefer to see a much more orderly transition with some real overlap, and I think that until we have a proposed solution (likely aria-describedat), along with some implementation examples and experience with the new attribute, that it is way too early to be discussing deprecation. I think that instead, we should be looking to encourage those browsers and OS stacks that currently do not provide good support to @longdesc (as JF glances towards Cupertino) to give it a second look - as NVDA did - and seek instead to deliver a better user-experience for all users moving forward today. Why wait? I have long argued that it is not the markup attribute that needs work, it's the support from the user-agents. The screen readers are (for the most part, and increasingly) doing their part, now we need the browsers to do something useful here too. JF
Received on Thursday, 8 November 2012 22:58:01 UTC