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Thread: Longdesc in Images

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Number of posts in this thread: 11 (In chronological order)

From: Jorge Fernandes
Date: Sun, Sep 24 2006 3:00PM
Subject: Longdesc in Images
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Hi,

I'm a young guy at WebAIM Forum. I really appreciate the discussions.
I work in Lisbon, Portugal, in the field of Web Accessibility at the
Ministry of Science & Technology. Since August 1999 that Portugal
have legislation about Web Accessibility applied to Public
Administration.

More recently I bought the "The WebAIM guide to Web Accessibility
Suite". Is a great content! congratulations to WebAIM team. I
recommend it :)

This tutorial recommend 4 Methods of Providing a Long Description:
- In the context of the document itself;
- A normal text link;
- The longdesc attribute;
- "D" links.

I'd like to know your opinion about a 5th possibility:
- the image is a link to it's description.

In code, I mean:

<a href="description.htm" title="Description of ..."><img src="..."
alt="short description, <= 80 chars according with Cynthia Says
Report :) " /></a>

What do you think? Semantically seems me adequate: a description is a
closer view.

Like the methods listed above are ordered, what could be the order of
this "solution"? Or isn't either a "solution"...

Kind Regards, Jorge Fernandes

++in

From: Steve Robillard
Date: Sun, Sep 24 2006 3:10PM
Subject: RE: Longdesc in Images
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Jorge,

What happens when you are trying to use the image to link to something other
than the longdesc?

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
[mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Jorge Fernandes
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 4:50 PM
To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Subject: [WebAIM] Longdesc in Images

Hi,

I'm a young guy at WebAIM Forum. I really appreciate the discussions.
I work in Lisbon, Portugal, in the field of Web Accessibility at the
Ministry of Science & Technology. Since August 1999 that Portugal have
legislation about Web Accessibility applied to Public Administration.

More recently I bought the "The WebAIM guide to Web Accessibility Suite". Is
a great content! congratulations to WebAIM team. I recommend it :)

This tutorial recommend 4 Methods of Providing a Long Description:
- In the context of the document itself;
- A normal text link;
- The longdesc attribute;
- "D" links.

I'd like to know your opinion about a 5th possibility:
- the image is a link to it's description.

In code, I mean:

<a href="description.htm" title="Description of ..."><img src="..."
alt="short description, <= 80 chars according with Cynthia Says Report :) "
/></a>

What do you think? Semantically seems me adequate: a description is a closer
view.

Like the methods listed above are ordered, what could be the order of this
"solution"? Or isn't either a "solution"...

Kind Regards, Jorge Fernandes

++in

From: Jorge Fernandes
Date: Sun, Sep 24 2006 3:20PM
Subject: Re: Longdesc in Images
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Steve,

If the function of image is to link to something, maybe it don't need
a longdesc...

Jorge

++in

From: Jorge Fernandes
Date: Sun, Sep 24 2006 3:30PM
Subject: Re: Longdesc in Images
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A good example of this diference could be an institucional logo in a
website:

At homepage:

<a href="description.htm"><img ... longdesc="description.htm /></a>

At the others pages:

<a href="index.htm"><img ... alt="Homepage" /></a>

++in

From: Tim Beadle
Date: Mon, Sep 25 2006 2:30AM
Subject: Re: Longdesc in Images
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On 24/09/06, Jorge Fernandes < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> A good example of this diference could be an institucional logo in a
> website:
>
> At homepage:
>
> <a href="description.htm"><img ... longdesc="description.htm /></a>
>
> At the others pages:
>
> <a href="index.htm"><img ... alt="Homepage" /></a>

Does a logo *need* a long description? I would have thought that alt
text would be sufficient.

Also, conventional behaviour is for the logo to link to the homepage
(as you have done on the other, non-home, pages). Usability best
practice says not to link to the current page, so I would think that
the best thing would be to have the logo without a link on the home
page.

Tim




From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Mon, Sep 25 2006 2:50AM
Subject: Re: Longdesc in Images
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On Mon, 25 Sep 2006, Tim Beadle wrote:

> Does a logo *need* a long description?

It doesn't, and it is surely misleading and potentially quite confusing to
make a logo, used otherwise normally as a logo, a link to a description of
the logo.

If you have something to say about the design of a logo, then you can say
that on separate page, or in a separate section of some page. Any link
pointing to it should we written along normal link text design principle:
descriptive, concise, and distinctive. "About our logo" or "Description of
the ACME logo" might work.

--
Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/





From: Patrick Lauke
Date: Mon, Sep 25 2006 3:00AM
Subject: RE: Longdesc in Images
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> Tim Beadle

> Does a logo *need* a long description? I would have thought that alt
> text would be sufficient.

I'd say that the alt should be the name of the company (i.e. the alt serves the function/purpose of the logo, which is to communicate which company site we're on), while longdesc describes the appearance of the logo itself (although in most situations I'm not sure this is necessary, unless we were creating a page which discusses the visual appearance and differences of logos, for instance, where this information is essential to the understanding of the rest of the page).

P
________________________________
Patrick H. Lauke
Web Editor
External Relations Division
University of Salford
Room 113, Faraday House
Salford, Greater Manchester
M5 4WT
UK

T +44 (0) 161 295 4779
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =

www.salford.ac.uk

A GREATER MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY




From: Christian Heilmann
Date: Mon, Sep 25 2006 4:20AM
Subject: Re: Longdesc in Images
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> > Does a logo *need* a long description?
>
> It doesn't, and it is surely misleading and potentially quite confusing to
> make a logo, used otherwise normally as a logo, a link to a description of
> the logo.
>
> If you have something to say about the design of a logo, then you can say
> that on separate page, or in a separate section of some page. Any link
> pointing to it should we written along normal link text design principle:
> descriptive, concise, and distinctive. "About our logo" or "Description of
> the ACME logo" might work.

+1

In my experience, LONGDESC is only necessary for graphs and survey
results, where longdesc links to a tabular representation of the same
data.

--
Chris Heilmann
Book: http://www.beginningjavascript.com
Blog: http://www.wait-till-i.com
Writing: http://icant.co.uk/




From: Carol E. Wheeler
Date: Mon, Sep 25 2006 8:20AM
Subject: RE: Longdesc in Images
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I have used longdesc as a link to an html page when using a graphic of
an announcement. I.e. when we have a flyer graphic that I have put on a
page, I have a longdesc that links to a text only version of the
announcement.

Carol E. Wheeler
American Library Association
Washington Office
202.628.8410 v
202.403.8495 f




From: St
Date: Mon, Sep 25 2006 2:30PM
Subject: Re: Longdesc in Images
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<quote who='Christian Heilmann' when='25/09/2006 12:14'>

>> If you have something to say about the design of a logo, then you can say
>> that on separate page, or in a separate section of some page. Any link
>> pointing to it should we written along normal link text design principle:
>> descriptive, concise, and distinctive. "About our logo" or
>> "Description of
>> the ACME logo" might work.
>
> +1
>
> In my experience, LONGDESC is only necessary for graphs and survey
> results, where longdesc links to a tabular representation of the same
> data.

As a mark of respect to low-vision people, I'm using it for a photo
gallery as well. And it's interesting for me too, because I have to find
a way to understand the 'theory' underlining the picture.

--
St

From: Jorge Fernandes
Date: Mon, Sep 25 2006 2:50PM
Subject: Re: Longdesc in Images
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Sorry. Just to focus the question. The question is, when we need a
longdesc to an image, how to put it?

The tutorial "The WebAIM guide to Web Accessibility Suite" recommend
4 Methods of Providing a Long Description:
- In the context of the document itself;
- A normal text link;
- The longdesc attribute;
- "D" links.

I'd like to know your opinion about a 5th possibility:
- the image is a link to it's description.

In code, I mean:

<a href="description.htm" title="Description of ..."><img src="..."
alt="short description, <= 80 chars according with Cynthia Says
Report :) " longdesc="description.htm" /></a>

What do you think? Semantically seems me adequate: a description is a
closer view.

##
I got already a thought of Steve "What happens when you are trying to
use the image to link to something other
than the longdesc?". Theoretical he's right but I answer "If the
function of image is to link to something, maybe it don't need a
longdesc...".

-- Jorge




On 25 Sep 2006, at 15:11, Carol E. Wheeler wrote:

> I have used longdesc as a link to an html page when using a
> graphic of
> an announcement. I.e. when we have a flyer graphic that I have put
> on a
> page, I have a longdesc that links to a text only version of the
> announcement.
>
> Carol E. Wheeler
> American Library Association
> Washington Office
> 202.628.8410 v
> 202.403.8495 f
>
>
>