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Longdesc implementations/alternatives?

for

From: Robert Fentress
Date: Jun 24, 2015 9:13AM

Is longdesc something folks are using at this point? I've read the support
for it has improved
<http://www.karlgroves.com/2014/08/26/longdesc-where-are-the-alternatives/>;,
but I had been recommending, instead, that people add the attribute
aria-describedby to the image
<http://www.last-child.com/accessible-infographics/infographics-aria-describedby/>;,
with the attribute's value referencing the id of an element with
aria-hidden="true" applied to it.

In Karl Grove's piece linked to above, I ran across these examples of ways
to make longdesc work more consistently and expose the information it
provides to other users (especially those with cognitive disabilities):

- Dirk Ginader's jQuery Accessible Longdesc Plugin
<https://github.com/ginader/Accessible-Longdesc>
- Steve Faulkner's Flipbox web component
<http://rawgit.com/stevefaulkner/flipbox/master/demo/testpage.html>;
- James Craig's iFrame example <http://cookiecrook.com/longdesc/iframe/>;

One thing I noticed from all of these is that they replace the image with
the text alternative, which, if intended to help individuals with cognitive
disabilities better understand the content being presented, seems
sub-optimal. Better, I would think, would be to trigger a movable dialog
or popover that contains the text. That way, the user could see the image
and read the text, comparing the two.

Do you know of anyone who has taken this approach? Do you have a better
one?

Best,
Rob

--
Robert Fentress
Senior Accessibility Solutions Designer
540.231.1255

Technology-enhanced Learning & Online Strategies
Assistive Technologies
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