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Becasue @longdesc has obsolete status, the spec recommends: ]] Use a regular a element to link to the description. [[ Proposal: To the above, add the following: ]] [Use a regular a element to link to the description] or turn the image into an image map with a single <area> element and let the <area> element point to the long description. To mimic the typical implementation of the longdesc attribute, one might also consider adding target="_blank" to the a or area element. [[ Justifications: Firstly, HTML5 otherwise align the area element with the anchor element - there is not reason to not do the same also in this context. Secondly, an image map is directly assocated with the img element - thus it has an qualitative advantage in that sense. (This advantage should perhaps be mentioned in the text - feel free to do so.) Thirdlly, @target=_blank should be mentioned because all known implementations of @longdesc do open the URL in a new window.
EDITOR'S RESPONSE: This is an Editor's Response to your comment. If you are satisfied with this response, please change the state of this bug to CLOSED. If you have additional information and would like the editor to reconsider, please reopen this bug. If you would like to escalate the issue to the full HTML Working Group, please add the TrackerRequest keyword to this bug, and suggest title and text for the tracker issue; or you may create a tracker issue yourself, if you are able to do so. For more details, see this document: http://dev.w3.org/html5/decision-policy/decision-policy.html Status: Partially Accepted Change Description: see diff given below Rationale: I added text similar to what you suggest, but I didn't include the mention of the target="" attribute since opening new windows leads to a poor user experience (and all the more so to AT users).
Checked in as WHATWG revision r5630. Check-in comment: suggest another alternative for longdesc http://html5.org/tools/web-apps-tracker?from=5629&to=5630
Bug triage sub-team thinks this is a A11Y TF priority because it's related to longdesc (ISSUE-30 http://www.w3.org/html/wg/tracker/issues/30). Adding dependency on 10455 to reflect this, and TrackerIssue keyword to reflect relationship to ISSUE-30. Note the ultimate engineering of longdesc solutions may or may not support the suggestion in this bug, so this will have to be addressed when longdesc is complete.
mass-move component to LC1