FW: acronym in title...

Dear I18N IG and GEO TF, 

Please see the attached note for a real-life instance of a person
wanting to apply markup (span and abbr) within the <title> element.
(This element only supports PCDATA in HTML4.01 and XHTML2.0). The need
below is raised due to accessibility concerns. There may also be
requirements to apply other phrasal markup, for example a span to
support bidi attributes in Arabic and Hebrew contexts.  I'd like to
propose that the HTML group introduce support for phrasal markup in the
title element in XHTML 2.0 (I assume it's too late for HTML 4.01).

We can also make this request more generic.  In a recent paper I argued
that dtd designers should avoid putting ANY localisable text into
attributes where possible.  An example of this is the alt attribute in
HTML 4.01.  The text in alt sometimes needs span or bdo elements to
support bidirectionality or language changes (particularly for voice
browsers).  In principle other phrasal tags could be useful too, such as
em.  To assist localisation it would also be very useful to be able to
attach an id to the alt text.  (In DTDs I design myself, I have used an
image element that includes separate graphic and alt elements to get
around this.)

Although it perhaps presents a somewhat more difficult case, the title
attribute calls for the same treatment.  In addition, it is quite
possible that the title text is in a different language to the text in
the element to which it is attached.  How do you make that clear if the
title text is in an attribute?

So I'm proposing that we ask the HTML group to consider:
1.	allowing phrasal markup on the title element for XHTML2
2.	avoiding the use of attributes containing localisable text
wherever feasible

Comments? Thoughts?

RI



============
Richard Ishida
W3C

tel: +44 1753 480 292
http://www.w3.org/International/
http://www.w3.org/People/Ishida/



-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org] On
Behalf Of Roberto Scano - IWA/HWG
Sent: 11 March 2003 09:47
To: WCAG List
Subject: acronym in title...




I forward the question of an IWA member:

----
I have a small issue that I am hoping you can help me with.  I am trying
to create web pages with the new standard XTML, following the rules for
accessibility set down by WCAG and Internationalizations..

1) Example: "<title>Home Page - Spiegazioni della direttiva WCAG del
World Wide Web Consortium</title>"
    On this example there is a mix of english words and italian words
because the page is wrote in italian language and is related to argument
that could not be translated in italian. I can understand that I can use
"Pagina Principale" instead of "Home Page" even if is not so nice, but I
should use <acronym> for WCAG and english spelling for "World Wide Web
Consortium". I repeat this is only an example but the concept is: how
can I switch language or how can I show acronyms inside "string"
attribute?

Received on Thursday, 13 March 2003 07:36:44 UTC