Re: ISSUE 30 @longdesc use cases

Hi Josh

> I have come across a couple of interesting @longdesc use cases.

I have researched some more:
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lcarlson/research/ld.html

If anyone knows of others, please let me know.  Thanks.

Best Regards,
Laura

> I have come across a couple of interesting @longdesc use cases. The
> first is by Laura Carlson which used "A11y Resolved Bug Comparisons"
> graphs and pie charts. Describing a pie chart and graph like the
> examples Laura provide would be extremely difficult without an attribute
> like @longdesc, if you don't want the descriptions to appear inline. [1]
>
> To expand on this problem, the need for an off page long descriptor is
> made even clearer in the following example from 2006 (courtesy of Prof.
> Barry McMullin of DCU) which he describes as a "Double-negative use
> case". [2]
>
> To explain - I will quote Barry directly from the CFIT website.
>
> "Double-negative" because longdesc is not being used here — but I would
> have liked to use it, and its use would have been absolutely
> appropriate! It's just that weak user-agent support meant that using it
> would potentially have left the long description actually unavailable to
> people who might benefit from it. So instead, I decided to compromise
> (somewhat) the experience of people who already could perceive the
> graphical image perfectly well, and exposed the long description for all
> users (even though it is redundant for the majority). This decision
> then, logically, had the further effect of requiring an explanation —
> for those majority users — of what a long description is and why — which
> explanation, in turn, is redundant for those users who would normally
> actually benefit from a long description!
>
> I humbly suggest that such a convoluted (nay, "traumatic"!) design
> decision — genuinely existing "in the wild" — should count as legitimate
> evidence of the use-case-need for longdesc!?" [3]
>
> To me the above example, compounds the first and illustrates that an off
> page long descriptor is very much needed but due to the authors concerns
> about UA support etc he decided /not/ to use it. This implies that:
>
> 1) A long descriptor, that can potentially reference a URI and can be
> recognised and handled in a way that is conducive to a positive user
> experience for an AT user is actually needed.
>
> 1) The consequences of having to include a very verbose description
> inline can be problematic in terms of page bloat, potential perceived
> complexity for users with cognitive disabilities and possibly other
> usability issues, such as general confusion as to the descriptions
> purpose for non-users of AT.
>
> Josh
>
> [1] http://www.d.umn.edu/~lcarlson/html5bugchart/20100821/
> [2] http://www.aishe.org/readings/2007-1/No-14.html#x20-19300014.6
> [3] http://www.cfit.ie/news-and-commentary-archive/525-longdesc-rip
>
>
>


-- 
Laura L. Carlson

Received on Thursday, 9 September 2010 23:13:32 UTC