Re: validating understanding of techniques for 1.1.1 & 2.4.4

On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 7:00 AM, Jennison Mark Asuncion
<asuncion@alcor.concordia.ca> wrote:
> Hello,
>
>
> 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context):
> The purpose of each link can be determined from the link text alone or
> from the link text together with its programmatically determined link
> context, except where the purpose of the link would be ambiguous to users
> in general.
> Technique H33: Supplementing link text with the title attribute states:
> “Implementing this technique with the title attribute is only sufficient
> if the title attribute is accessibility supported. The content of the
> title attribute needs to be available to all keyboard users (not only
> those with text-to-speech software) for this attribute to be accessibility
> supported.”
> Question 3: This technique implies that for links using the “title”
> attribute to be fully accessible, the “title” of each link must also be
> keyboard accessible. Is this interpretation correct? Has anyone
> successfully implemented this technique in this manner?
>
> Any help on the above three questions is, as always, appreciated.
>
> Jennison
>
>
> --
> Jennison Mark Asuncion
> Co-Director, Adaptech Research Network <www.adaptech.org>
> LinkedIn at <www.linkedin.com/in/jennison>
>
================================
Response from the Working Group
================================
The answers to your questions will depend on whether the information
provided by the title attribute is available to keyboard users by
other means. For example, if the title is used to provide
supplementary information about link text that already describes the
purpose of the link, then it may not be necessary to make the value of
the title attribute keyboard accessible. Similarly, it may not be
necessary to make it keyboard accessible if the title includes
information that is otherwise clear from the layout or positioning of
the link within the context of the page.

On the other hand, if the value of title is essential to understanding
the purpose of the link for all users, then this information needs to
be available to keyboard users as well.

One example of providing keyboard access to tooltips can be found at
http://www.brothercake.com/site/resources/scripts/tooltips/. There are
also a number of tooltip plugins written for the various JavaScript
libraries that could easily be customized so that this information
appears on keyboard as well as mouse focus.

We have modified the user agent note you mentioned to read, "If the
value of the title is essential to understanding the purpose of the
link for all users, then the content of this attribute needs to be
available to all keyboard users (not only those with text-to-speech
software) for this technique to be accessibility supported."

Loretta Guarino Reid, WCAG WG Co-Chair
Gregg Vanderheiden, WCAG WG Co-Chair
Michael Cooper, WCAG WG Staff Contact


On behalf of the WCAG Working Group

Received on Monday, 26 July 2010 23:32:14 UTC