Re: [css-counter-styles] allow use of CSS4 "alt" property with @counter-style/symbols

On May 14, 2014, at 11:28 PM, Sebastian Zartner <sebastianzartner@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 15 May 2014 03:36, James Craig <jcraig@apple.com> wrote:
> Speak-as may account for some simple cases (like the numeric example below), but does not allow authors to designate alternative text for the symbol-based markers. If you just want numeric markers, there's no reason to use "symbols" at all.
> 
> The following example is admittedly contrived, but is a better illustration of what cannot be accomplished with the "speak-as" property.
> 
>     symbols: ◰ ◳ ◲ ◱;
>     alt: 'foo' 'bar' 'baz' 'bop';
> 
> "speak-as" provides pretty good coverage of CSS 2's "list-style-type" property, but AFAICT it doesn't provide sufficient coverage of CSS3's "symbols" property.
> 
> What's the actual use case to allow the symbols to have an arbitrary name when they are spoken?

It depends on the reason the the author chose to use this list style. For example, an author might be using icon fonts to convey some meaning in the list marker. The alternative text should reflect that meaning.

> I imagine that could be rather confusing for visually impaired people.


What's the actual use case for to allow arbitrary symbols to be displayed as ordered list markers? I imagine that could be rather confusing for sighted people. ;-)

Not trying to be too snarky here. Just trying to put this in perspective. CSS is mostly about style, not content. However, CSS generated content (including list markers), can be meaningful, so that meaning should be be conveyed in an accessible manner to all consumers of web content. If there is a reason to allow arbitrary symbols to be displayed in some order, there is a reason to allow alternative text for those symbols.

Cheers,
James