Re: [html4all] HTML5 Alternative Text, and Authoring Tools

On May 13, 2008, at 02:49, William Loughborough wrote:

> Accessibility to the Web is the cornerstone of the World Wide Web,  
> not some bolted-on
> characteristic.


Actually, some accessibility features are built in and others are  
bolted on.

When HTML-native form widgets are conveyed to AT as widgets, that's  
built-in. When an author recreates the effect with ARIA attributes,  
that's bolted-on.

Whenever there's a long thread about accessibility, it's always about  
the bolted-on features, because with the built-in stuff you don't need  
to badger authors into taking care of accessibility because it comes  
as a side effect of their other authoring activity, so there isn't  
anything to discuss passionately.

Alt is one of the bolted on things. It's not politically correct, but  
as a WG we can't make good decisions if we pretend otherwise.

-- 
Henri Sivonen
hsivonen@iki.fi
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/

Received on Tuesday, 13 May 2008 08:25:02 UTC