Re: 2.4.4 Sample

Hi Chris.

Now that we know what you are trying to do the answer to your question is straightforward. 

ANSWER - You are responsible for the accessibility of your site, therefore you are responsible for the quality of the link text on your website. You must make sure that the purpose of any link (ie what happens when the user selects the link) is clear to users. Exactly how you do that is up to you and will depend upon different things for diferent situations. There is no "magic bullet". WCAG suggests some techniques that might help (they are suggestions) but in the end you have to apply your knowledge of your target audience, look at the link text and say to yourself - "does this make it clear what will happen when the link is selected". Thus you are responsible for the quality of the link on your site that goes - to - the IRS website, but only the IRS is responsible for the quality of the links - on - that site.

I hope that this now concludes this topic.

Richard.

PS. I am happy to help, but only if requests come via the mail list.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Chris Reeve 
  To: David Dorward ; Phill Jenkins ; Patrick H. Lauke ; Richard_Userite ; David Woolley 
  Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org 
  Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 8:24 AM
  Subject: 2.4.4 Sample


        Scenario A:

        If I had a link to http://www.illinois.gov/gov/intopportunities.htm#dunn and my link title was "State of Illonis - Pat Quinn, Governor". they already complied with 2.4.4 for the requirement for downlodable material.

        If I provide a link to this page who is responsible for 2.4.4?

        1) Both ends (State of Illonis, IRS, and me)
        2) The site that maintains the documents (State of Illonis and 
        the IRS, but not me)
        3) At least one of the two sites (either my site or the end site)

        Secnario B: Please take a look at http://www.irs.gov/
        None of their tax-foms comply with 2.4.4

        If I provide a link to the tax form, who is responsible for 2.4.4?

        1) Both ends (State of Illonis,  and IRS, but not me)
        2) The site that maintains the documents (State of Illonis, and IRS, but not me)
        3) At least one of the two sites (either my site or the end site)

        Additionally, there are no downloable documents on my server. How does this change things?

        I never linked to the PDF, but only to the page that provides the PDF (e.g. Pat Quinn's page provides a PDF to a 1 MB file and another document that is 50 KB)

        This way readers can see what they are downloading and how much time it might take, based on the size. 

        Also, Google has a way of translating documents into text or html. 

        Because of the pressure of 2.4.4 to describe it, I have changed my destination link to some html/text versions.

        What difference does this make?