WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Using a definition list for footnote/asterisked items

for

From: Pete Fairhurst
Date: Nov 1, 2010 8:30AM


On 1 November 2010 13:05, Chris Hoffman < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> You could make a tenuous argument that sources "describe" the quotations
> attributed to them, but that's IMHO a very square peg in a very round hole.
>

I suspect you're probably right, but can't help being curious. :)

On 1 November 2010 13:09, Pratik Patel < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Can you share some example code that would typify the approach you're
> proposing. While I think I understand what you're trying to accomplish, I
> want to be absolutely certain.


The code I had in mind - for my asterisk example - was roughly as follows
(apologies if this makes any of you cringe--just me kicking around a sketchy
idea in code):

<!-- start of example -->

<p>A passage of text in the main body of the page content which may make
one<a href="#footnote1">*</a> or perhaps two<a href="#footnote2">**</a>
references to related information or clauses, using asterisks. More content
would proceed after this, etc.</p>
<!-- ... -->

<!-- then, at the base of this main content, you'd have something like...
-->
<dl>
<dt id="footnote1">*</dt>
<dd>This is one example of a footnote, wrapped in a definition list and
using asterisks for notation.</dd>
<dt id="footnote2">**</dt>
<dd>A second example of a footnote using asterisk notation.</dd>
</dl>

<!-- end of example -->

That's it, basically. Nothing more complicated than that. Probably not a
great idea though, I suspect, as it won't provide the sort of
semantic/relational benefits I was hoping it might.

- Pete

~~~~

"Haste in art is almost always vulgarisation." H.G. Wells