Re: Short and long descriptions for links

Just for clarification, you are saying that "longdesc"  /may be/ more 
appropriate to use than the "title" attribute?

you stated the following:

/"in some cases, screen reader verbosity settings may determine whether
or not an element's title is announced - so you can't guarantee that users
will hear it in all circumstances"
/
Lets say for that the ( screen reader ) user did in fact set the screen reader settings to NOT announce a link "title". I would argue that the user turned off the /title announcement setting/ for a reason, why then should they be _forced_ to listen to a "longdesc" ?/
/

you also said:

/"as far as I'm aware, there is no mechanism for users employing 
keyboard navigation to present the title of the element which currently 
has focus"/

Is there a method for them to display the "longdesc"?

Conclusion-

I believe that the very start of web accessibility begins with a 
standard for the HTML Language ( currently there is no concrete standard 
).  This is where the W3C fits in, to define a standard.

Within the W3C Standards I do not believe that "longdesc" is a valid 
attribute for the "a" element, which leaves the "title" attribute as the 
/only/ proper method of further defining the definition of a text link.

Regards,

Matthew J. Giustino
mjg@giustiweb.com


Patrick Lauke wrote:

>>From: Tipton, William 
>>    
>>
>[...]
>  
>
>>I would like to have longer descriptions so where appropriate 
>>users who
>>use screen readers can pick up this longer description. The shorter
>>descriptions would be used for the users who do not use 
>>screen readers.
>>I am hoping that the screen readers would only pick the longer
>>description when both the short and long are used.
>>    
>>
>
>One thing that struck me while reading this is that a longer, more
>explicit description may benefit all users, not just those navigating
>the page with a screenreader. Think, for instance, about users with
>cognitive/learning disabilities. As Matthew already mentioned, title
>would probably be the most appropriate. Two points worth mentioning, though:
>a) in some cases, screenreader verbosity settings may determine whether
>or not an element's title is announced - so you can't guarantee that users
>will hear it in all circumstances;
>b) (in relation to my "it's useful to everybody, not just screenreader
>users" bit above) as far as I'm aware, there is no mechanism for users
>employing keyboard navigation to present the title of the element which
>currently has focus (i.e. the link they may have just tabbed to), so again
>you cannot guarantee that all users will benefit from it.
>Not saying it's not appropriate to use title, just thought it would be
>good to mention these points for completeness' sake.
>
>Patrick
>________________________________
>Patrick H. Lauke
>Webmaster / University of Salford
>http://www.salford.ac.uk
>
>
>  
>