On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 5:52 PM, Carolyn Wagner <wagner...@verizon.net> wrote:
> Some images on the web provide an alternative text version that should
> describe the image. In certain cases a description of more than 30 words is
> necessary to describe the image so a longdesc attribute is added to the image
> tag. Like this <img src="myImage" alt="a picture of me"
> longdesc="fulldesc.html"> The longdesc is a link to page that has a longer
> detailed description of the image.
>
> I was wondering if there is a particular command or setting to link to the
> longdesc from VoiceOver. Right now, VO only reads the alt text "a picture of
> me". But doesn't allow for me to link to the fulldesc.html page.
There's no VoiceOver command for accessing "longdesc", and no Safari
or Chrome user interface for "longdesc". So to access "longdesc" you'd
need some sort of add-on or script. (I'm not aware of any that have
been written for these programs.)
I'm a member of a group working on the next version of HTML. Currently
(and controversially), the current draft specification recommends
authors do not use "longdesc". So I'm interested in use of "longdesc"
in the wild. Would you be able to provide the address of any webpages
that use a "longdesc" you'd like to access?
If you are the author of the page, would you consider other means of
providing the information such as:
* Providing a visible link to the long description after the image.
* Including a long description on the same page as the image. This
could be declaratively associated with the image using the
"aria-describedby" attribute. When JS is available, you could hide the
description by default and provide a button that shows it when
pressed.
An advantage of these approaches is that the long description is
available to everyone who might have trouble using the image using
widely implemented features. A disadvantage is that the availability
of the long description might not be advertised to screen reader users
who jump from image to image on the page. Also, obviously, these
approaches have an impact on the visual design of the page.
Also, what guidance are you following that suggests "30 words" is the
maximum suitable length for an "alt" attribute? As an author, if you
wouldn't want to add a visible long description or visible link to the
long description, would you consider providing the whole long
description in the "alt" attribute? This is what the current HTML
draft spec suggests.
--
Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis
<--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net --->
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