<address> For Style [was: Re: www-watchdog?]

"Henrik Edlund" <mailto:henrik@edlund.org> wrote:-

> If I look at the use of the address element it seems to be
> more of a way to make text italic [...]

Please don't. If you want to make text italic, at least use the <i>
element, but really you are probably wanting to add emphasis to the
text, in which case you should be using <em>. cf. WCAG 1.0 [1]:-

[[[
Using markup improperly -- not according to specification -- hinders
accessibility. Misusing markup for a presentation effect (e.g., using
a table for layout or a header to change the font size) makes it
difficult for users with specialized software to understand the
organization of the page or to navigate through it. [...]
]]]

Using <address> to make text italic, you are confusing people who's
browsers don't display as italic for a start, and confusing anyone who
interpret the semantics of the <address> element as intended - e.g.
people who are extracting data about a page using XSLT, or people who
use screen readers and have it set up to read address differently
(perhaps with a prompt).

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/#gl-structure-presentation

--
Kindest Regards,
Sean B. Palmer
@prefix : <http://webns.net/roughterms/> .
:Sean :hasHomepage <http://purl.org/net/sbp/> .

Received on Tuesday, 8 May 2001 10:16:59 UTC