RE: example spec text for longdesc

John Foliot, Mon, 4 Apr 2011 11:50:40 -0700 (PDT):
> Steve Faulkner wrote:
>> (Matt Turley wrote:)
    [...]
>>> The drawback of including an attribute specifically for the purpose of
>>> hiding accessibility
>> 
>> it is not intended that longdesc will 'hide accessibility' in fact it is
>> the opposite as I have attempted to articulate in the example spec text
  [...]
> Indeed. This is, in fact, the crux of the problem: GUI browsers today do
> not natively provide an indication to sighted users that @longdesc content
> exists when used in a document. [...] for sighted users, at this time no
> browser has an obvious, 'in your face' indication that a longer
> description exists on a complex image.

Actually, the oldest longdesc implementation, the one in iCab, *do* 
notify its (sighted) users about the presence of @longdesc in a way 
which is analogous to how it visually notifies its user about the 
presence of a link: by changing the mouse pointer/cursor.

I attach an HTML file were you can study the icons that iCab uses. 

Summary: iCab uses the same cursor image for @longesc links as it uses 
for @cite links (on blockquote/q). But if there is a link around an 
image which has the @longdesc attribute (or around q/blockquote with 
@cite), then it shows the same cursor icon as when it hovers above a 
normal link which has the @title attribute set. I admit that when there 
is a link around the image, then it could perhaps have used another 
cursor icon. 

To know whether it is a longdesc link or/and a cite linke, one must 
click on the item and look in the contextual menu.

It seems that neither Opera nor the Firefox plug-in changes the cursor 
image when hovering above whether q/blockqkuote@cite or above 
img@longdesc. But perhaps the Firefox plug-in and Opera develoepers are 
willing to learn from iCab? I am not sure that we need anything very 
much more "in your face" than this. After Steve mentioned keyboard 
focus navigation, I asked the iCab developer whether it would be 
possible to include (or at least have preference for) jumping to images 
with @longdesc (and q/blockquote elements with @cite) via the tabulator 
key. However, he believed it had to be fixed as Webkit level.

Leif Halvard Silli