WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Current best practice/standard/guideline for linking to non-html files?

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Oct 21, 2014 6:44AM

Benefits of indicating file types, )ellaborating on what´s already been stated).
Users, particularly users with disabilities, may need to open files in
"unusual" applications for maximum accessibility (say, they would
always want to use AdobeReader rather than opening a PDF document in
the browser). By indicating the filetype on the link you give them an
opportunity to take the appropriate action, such as right click and
save the file rather than opening it.
Yes, users can configure their own workstations or mobile devices to
always open a certain filetype in a certain application, but users may
not always be using their own workstations or devices when browsing
the internet.
For people with disabilities this is a very important usability issue.


Not indicating that a link points to a filetype cannot be called under
a WCAG violation, as far as I can see, (and I have tried) unless this
information is not available visually.
If this info is available visually (e.g. by including an icon as a CSS
.background image), it would, however, be a violation of WCAG SC 1.1.1
not to provide that info in some other way.
Cheers



On 10/21/14, Mallory van Achterberg < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 12:14:02AM +0000, Jonathan Avila wrote:
>> Benefits for indicating the type apply to people with motor, cognitive,
>> and visual impairments. Traversing a link that is not the intended link
>> can have more serious consequences for people with disabilities because
>> they have to return to where they were. An argument can also be made from
>> mobile where large documents can take a long time to download or cause the
>> user to incur fees for data usage.
>>
>> Jonathan
>
> Benefits for users who need to keep their rates in mind (mobile users)
> and those who know whether or not they even have an application
> available that can open it. For example, if I knew I wanted to avoid
> .pdf files because I have a crap phone, I now have the knowledge to
> stay away.
>
> I consider it a usability issue.
> _mallory
> > > >


--
Work hard. Have fun. Make history.