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Re: address tag

for

From: smithj7@peoplepc.com
Date: Feb 14, 2007 8:50PM

I use the address tag on my contact page. However, the default with my
websoftware is italics so I changed the style. For me it is just a quick
way to format on that page and try to get in the practice of using sematic
tagging.

I thought sematic tagging (e.g. cite, acryonm, abbr) was/is going to be more
important in the future. Is it true that sematic tagging is the wave of
the future?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alastair Campbell" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 6:31 AM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] address tag


>> Is the address tag good for accessibility?
>
> I would say it's fairly ambivalent at the moment with regards to
> accessibility. Not harmful, but not useful either.
>
> With regards to 'should I use it?', I would split this into three
> questions:
> 1. Is there anything useful about address tags for accessibility in the
> specs? (No.)
> 2. Do any current user agents do anything special with it? (Not that I
> know of.)
> 3. Is there any likely future use? (Unlikely.)
>
> For questions one and two: It is a tag with a confusing past, which has
> lead to it being used in different ways, and User-Agents not making any
> use of it.
>
> The address tag would seem appropriate for the type of uses that
> Microformats are being used for, such as being able to copy contact
> information from a web page straight into your addressbook.
>
> The reason I don't think it is likely to be much use in future is that:
> - Microformats don't use it for marking up addresses (see why here:
> http://tantek.com/presentations/2005/09/elements-of-xhtml/#slide5).
> - HTML 5 doesn't specify it as general contact information markup
> (http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#the-address)
> - Neither does XHTML 2
> (http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/mod-structural.html#sec_8.1.).
>
> Both HTML 5 & XHTML 2 define it as contact information for the document
> or section of a document.
>
> Since that isn't the general use that most people consider it for
> (marking up contact information), it is unlikely to be utilised by User
> Agents for contact information. The address element is likely to be
> trapped in a spiral of non-use.
>
> Personally, I'd go with microformats.
>
> For a quick fix for the italics, just apply this in the CSS:
> address {font-style: normal}
>
> Kind regards,
>
> -Alastair
>
> --
> Alastair Campbell | Director of User Experience
>
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