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1. Title of the document Using aria-describedby to provide descriptions of objects 2. Location within the document Text that states: "A feature of WAI-ARIA is the ability to associate descriptive text with a section, drawing, form element, picture, and so on using the aria-describedby property. This is unlike longdesc, which typically required the author to create a separate file to describe a picture when it was preferred to have the descriptive text in prose as well so that it was readily available to all users. Yet, like longdesc, descriptive text is treated separately from the short name you would typically provide using the title or alt attributes in HTML. This is the preferred vehicle for providing long descriptions for elements in your document because the alternative is available to all, including sighted people who do not have assistive technology." http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/wiki/Using_aria-describedby_to_provide_descriptions_of_objects (16 July 2013 version) 3. Concern This information is incorrect. Longdesc does not require the author to create a separate file to describe an image as explained in: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-comments-wcag20/2013Jul/0012.html Additionally, with aria-describedby the description is forced upon screen reader users whether they want it or not. They cannot interact with it at will. Aria-describedby is read aloud without any user intervention, forcing the screen reader user to listen to it each and every time they encounter the image. The user is not able to control how they interact with the long description. None of this is a problem with longdesc as it supplies long descriptions on-demand and not by force. This choice is a critical user-requirement. Forcing users to listen to long descriptions is an extremely negative and harmful user-experience as John Foliot has explained, “The ability to (mentally and literally) pause, step outside of the page flow to get a description of a complex image (because you cannot see it) and then return to the content flow AT EXACTLY THE SAME PLACE YOU LEFT OFF is a design feature, not a flaw. The key point about @longdesc (for screen readers) is that they are given a *choice* as to whether or not they want to hear what some might consider extraneous data or not - it is the difference between glancing at a sophisticated pie chart (for example) versus studying it. You, as a sighted user, have that choice (to glance or study), yet insisting that the full-on textual description be inserted into the content flow because the user is blind is tantamount to me holding your head in a fixed position and insisting that you explain aloud to me that pie chart before I allow you to continue reading the rest of the page. @longdesc is about user-choice!” http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2011Mar/0736.html The designed behavior of Screen Reading technology that supports aria-describedby is to automatically 'read aloud' the text string referenced by the attribute, whether or not the end-user actually wants this information. It will introduce a "force-fed" longer description on the Screen Reader user whether they want it or not. This is, understandably, an extremely disruptive user-experience and one we should be avoiding at all cost. Aria-describedby is not a preferred method. 4. Suggested change Remove: "This is unlike longdesc which typically required the author to create a separate file to describe a picture when it was preferred to have the descriptive text in prose as well so that it was readily available to all users. Yet, like longdesc, descriptive text is treated separately from the short name you would typically provide using the title or alt attributes in HTML. This is the preferred vehicle for providing long descriptions for elements in your document because the alternative is available to all, including sighted people who do not have assistive technology." Add something such as: Screen Reading technology that supports aria-describedby is automatically 'read aloud' forcing users to listen to descriptions each time a user encounters an object. 5. Additional rationale for the comment The Techniques for WCAG 2.0 document should treat ARIA and longdesc equitably and not be biased against the new longdesc spec. https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/html-proposals/raw-file/default/longdesc1/longdesc.html Please correct this situation.