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Re: LONGDESC in HTML5?

for

From: Joshue O Connor
Date: Sep 25, 2010 2:39AM

On 25/09/2010 02:30, Vlad Alexander (XStandard) wrote:
> Josh wrote: "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.."
>
> Greater UA (user agent) or authoring tool support will not help with a "breakthrough in thinking".

Actually, what I really mean is its _implementation_. The user
experience with @longdesc has been below par (even when supported). I
have a few ideas on how that could be improved which I have floated in
working group. Having said that, implementation is a vendor UA issue,
the spec can define how an element behaves but the quality of the user
experience is largely depended on how it is implemented in practice. So
FWIW, I think there is a crucial part of the jigsaw missing.

>The way we define @alt and @longdesc will in the long run change authoring practices and user agent / tool support.

Yes, ARIA 2.0 may make aria-describedby take a URI, I think this will be
a good move but again, that's down the road. The point is, the way
@longdesc is defined - is it currently more a help than a hindrance? If
it is more useful, then retain it and obsolete it when we have a better
solution. The issue of authors not using it or the shiny new thing -
will always be there.

>Unfortunately, we are still talking about @alt and @longdesc as "image descriptions" with the only difference being the number of characters typed.

What else would you like them to do? We are talking about mechanisms
that enable an equivalent user experience, any ideas to make them better
are very much appreciated.

Cheers

Josh

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