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Re: Available title indication via css

for

From: Bim Egan
Date: Nov 10, 2017 11:38PM

Hi wolfgang,

Perhaps I'm just not getting the point here. Which group of people with
disabilities could benefit when styling is applied to the title attribute on
links (and other visible components)?

I imagine it could be useful for content editors as a visual prompt for
action. This could help avoid the danger of outdated title values when a
link's text and destination have changed. But that shouldn't be necessary.
Of course any one of the content editors might be disabled too. But even
here the benefit is slight if they can't use or see a mouse. . I can't
think of another accessibility use case though, can you?


Kind regards,

Bim


-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf
Of Wolfgang Berndorfer
Sent: 10 November 2017 21:47
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Available title indication via css

Hi Jared!
I totally agree that the TITLE attribute is somehow a Zombie in HTML:
1. Missing Keyboard and Touch Screen Accessibility in lot of cases.
2. Screen Reader Output depending on the available Screen Reader and
Settings.
3. Ambivalent infos in specs, techs and discussions.
4. Abusing, missunderstood and verbous usage.

But the Zombie is not dead but alive, practised and even often helpful.
It?s potentially helpful for sighted keyboard and mouse users, who siply
want to get some quick information. And those must visually get aware that
THERE WAS some advirsory information available.
So we could discusse a lot about the TITLE-attribute itself. But my question
was about HOW TO MAKE THE BEST OUT OF IT VIA STYLESHEETS.
If there was a standard for links to be underlined for additional or
descriptive informations to be dotted or dashed, somewhen there would be no
more missunderstandig. My impression is that there is already a tendency in
this direction.
And if Safari doesn?t support this feature at all, I wold say: It should!
Good Night from Innsbruck!
Wolfgang
<EMAIL REMOVED>
http://www.zweiterblick.at
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] Im Auftrag
von Jared Smith
Gesendet: Freitag, 10. November 2017 21:34
An: WebAIM Discussion List
Betreff: Re: [WebAIM] Available title indication via css

The title attribute value is not always read by screen readers (this depends
on the screen reader and the settings), is inaccessible to keyboard users,
is often not available to touch screen users, etc. So we rarely recommend it
and rarely use it on the WebAIM site.

And we rarely use or recommend <abbr> and <acronym>. Instead, commonly known
acronyms should be used, or they should be expanded in text in their first
instance.

Those styles are in place simply to present a more consistent visual
identification across browsers. Every browser tends to style <abbr> and
<acronym> differently. And some, including Safari, don't style them at all.

And even when styled, I suspect it's possible that users may confuse the
dotted or dashed underline for a link, except that you can't tab to it and
clicking it doesn't trigger a page change.

In short, the title attribute is generally problematic, unless used purely
for advisory information for mouse users and (sometimes) screen reader
users.

Thanks,

Jared Smith
WebAIM.org
http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
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