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From: David Ashleydale
Date: Jul 3, 2012 11:32AM

Hi,

The HTML 4.0 spec says this about the TITLE attribute: "This attribute
offers advisory information about the element for which it is set." My
question has to do with non-mouse users that have no visual impairments.
I've never seen a user agent that displays link TITLEs visually to anyone
other than mouse users. Even if you can Tab to an element that has a TITLE,
it doesn't visually display on the screen.

Does this mean that web page authors should steer clear of using TITLEs?

I sometimes use TITLEs on links to add some extra, advisory info. I
wouldn't use it for essential information, but it seems like a "nice to
have" in some cases. For example, I have a link that says "Small Business"
with a TITLE that says, "Small Business. Serving businesses with up to $20
million in annual revenue." This advisory info was deemed informative for
people that happen to come across it, but not important enough to display
as regular text on the page. The page owner figured that if some people saw
it by using their mouse or heard it with their screen reader (if they had
the right settings), great; if they didn't see it, whatever.

I always try to do things semantically correct and I believe that I am
using the TITLE attribute as it was meant to be used. However, I think user
agents dropped the ball on this one. Until such a time as all of the user
agents I support handle TITLEs correctly for non-mouse users, does TITLE
need shoring up using things like JavaScript to display it on focus?

Or would this be a case where the advisory info is not deemed essential, so
if some people can access it and others can't, then so be it?

Which of these do you think is the best current guideline for the use of
link TITLEs?:

1. Only use for non-essential information. Keep in mind that some people
will never encounter it. Even though mouse users can see it, most of them
don't because they don't linger on the link -- they just click and go.
2. Whenever you use TITLEs on links, also add JavaScript to display the
info on focus.
3. Don't use TITLE at all. If the info is truly non-essential, no one
will miss it.

Thanks,
David