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Re: LONGDESC in HTML5?

for

From: Joshue O Connor
Date: Sep 24, 2010 2:36PM

On 24/09/2010 20:38, Jukka K. Korpela wrote:
> Jared Smith wrote:
>
>> As John notes, there is much controversy surrounding the longdesc
>> attribute.
>
> It's waste of time. Nobody outside the small circle of accessibility
> advocators ever took longdesc seriously, still less used it in authoring.

Yes, but that still doesn't negate the need for a long descriptor,
whether it is @longdesc or something better. The audience for this
functionality may be relatively narrow (academia etc) but it is a valid
audience nonetheless.

FWIW, I agree with _some_ of Jukkas points but I sincerely want to ask
what he suggests?
Agreed, the current implementation has been pretty unsuccessful but does
that negate the need for a longdescriptor in HTML 5?
Others within the working group, have used the angle of unsuccessful
take up by authors as a rational for culling (in particular)
accessibility elements/attributes. I think this is a terrible, myopic
logic. Is it not better to have something that functions, has some kind
of cowpath (however small) - that could be built on, or do you prefer a
year zero approach, and if so what?

FWIW, I think that UA support for @longdesc has been the real culprit,
and not necessarily shortcomings with the attribute itself. Without some
kind of breakthrough in thinking I sense we may be having this
discussion again in ten years..

Josh

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