[Fwd: proposed changes to 2.4.5]

The following proposal relates to SC 2.4.5. Am forwarding to Team B for 
consideration.

Thanks,

-Ben

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: proposed changes to 2.4.5
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 11:55:40 -0500
From: David MacDonald <befree@magma.ca>
To: 'Gregg Vanderheiden' <gv@trace.wisc.edu>,        'Ben Caldwell' 
<caldwell@trace.wisc.edu>


I would like to have the group look at a suggestion for meaningful link text
2.4.5. Should I just go ahead and create a bug?

Issue 1

Several posts have shown good techniques for programmatically associating
links with meaningful descriptions of the link destinations, without
changing the default presentation. In other words, web designers could use
"click here" or "more" or "html", "PDF" etc...and still make the destination
obvious programmatically.
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-gl/2006JanMar/0087.html swap <b>
for <span> as per Roberto's suggestion.
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-gl/2006JanMar/0091.html
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-gl/2006JanMar/0083.html

So the proposal is as follows:


<current>
Each programmatic reference to another delivery unit or to another location
in the same delivery unit, is associated with text describing the
destination.
</current>

<proposed1>
Each programmatic reference to another delivery unit or to another location
in the same delivery unit, is programmatically associated with text
describing the destination.
<proposed1>

Issue 2

The other issue with 2.4.5 is that "programmatic reference" does not
currently have a definition. And most people need me to explain it to them
and then they say something like "why don't you just say 'hyperlink'". I
then explain the complications of doing that. Andrew Kirkpatrick's
suggestion was:

"Each hyperlink or programmatic reference to another delivery unit..."

I think this would make the guideline a lot easier to understand for most
web designers. And Christophe made a good point that HTTP means "hyper-text
transfer protocol". Which I think justifies the use of "hyperlink" in our
web technology independent document. At the very least we need a definition
for programmatic reference that uses the word "hyperlink."

As an accessibility consultant I make a living off of explaining this stuff
to people, so from a business perspective its better if it remains difficult
to understand, but I would rather be out of business and have people
understand this stuff.  :-)

Cheers
David

.Access empowers people
             .barriers disable them.

  www.eramp.com

Received on Monday, 23 January 2006 17:44:40 UTC