Re: Expanding longdesc use

David Singer, Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:18:29 -0700:
> OK, so maybe I should be corrected, and I apologize if I misunderstood.
> 
> But 'normal content' is often not 'visible' today anyway - common web 
> design hides stuff and does appealing appearance (slide-in, and so 
> on) when wanted.

If there was a need to, more directly, glue the link directly to the 
image, and if the author wanted - for that - to use an aria-describedBY 
which he/she pointed to the visual link, then there would be the same 
issue: Link duplication. One could, of course, wrap the image in a 
link, but that impacts on the perceived role: In VoiceOver, the alt 
text is treated as link text and the presence of an image, is not 
presented.

To be able to, effectively, reuse visual links - which I agree is a 
noble goal, we would need not @longdesc and not @aria-describedAT [if 
it would become just like @longdesc] but a new attribute - let's call 
it @linked-anchor:

<img src=s alt=a linked-anchor=linked >
<a id=linked href='long-description'>Image description.</a>

The effect of @linked-anchor should be to reuse the URL of the anchor 
as longdesc link. Unless we add more rules for how it works - such as a 
rule to ignore the longdesc effect if the next element is the linked 
anchor, then the above link would be presented twice to AT users: Once 
as longdesc link, and once in the normal flow.  But if the above link 
got an @aria-hidden='true' or @hidden or style='display:none', then it 
would only be presented once.

Such a @linked-anchor could be presented to users - AT user as well as 
other users - exactly the same way that @longdesc is presented.

> I am not sure I agree with either of (a) if the 
> description is part of the 'normal content' it'll annoy 'normal 
> users' or (b) the affordance, if needed, that shows the description, 
> should be specific to accessibility users.  Both the content and the 
> affordance may need *identifying* ('this links to the long 
> description of that'), and again, not really specifically for 
> accessibility users, though their software needs this discoverable 
> link.

So what do you think about @linked-anchor, in that regard?
-- 
leif h silli

Received on Friday, 16 March 2012 10:59:39 UTC