Ensuring conforming alternative is discoverable
Regarding the conforming alternative page, I think we'll need to make several important decisions as a group.
There is nothing in the definition of conforming alternative or accessbility supported mechanism that ensure the conforming alternative is discoverable. Alternative conformance
I think we have to decide if the link at the bottom of the page to a desktop view, or a desktop site is ok with us for 2.1, currently in WCAG 2.0 it is OK. If we think it's OK, then we have to manage the frustration for our friend in the department store by:
- clarifying that the conforming alternative link has to go to the SAME page content, not to the homepage of the desktop version (unless he was on the homepage of the mobile view). This is already required in WCAG 2 but we need to make it more explicit in a multi device world.
- Make the link to the desktop view more *discoverable*, and warn him that this page does not conform and relies on a conforming alternative.
For the second point I think, for 2.1, the link needs to be:
- on the TOP of the page rather than the bottom and
- it needs to inform the user that this is the conforming alternative, thereby informing them not to waste their time on this non-conforming page something like <a href="...desktopview...">Accessible version of this page</a>
The use case scenario
So say I'm blind, with a bit of vision, I'm in Walmart (or any store), and want to look up a product, pull out my phone go to the site... it serves up the mobile view. The search field, and hamburger menu don't work, so I can't do anything on this page ... so I go looking for a link to the desktop view, hoping that view conforms. 5 minutes gone... get to desktop view on my mobile device, let's assume it conforms to the new shiny WCAG 2.1, I still have a lousy experience, because they didn't optimize it for mobile. Big images suck up my bandwidth, costing me more money that other users, tons of content to swipe through, thick mega menu, I have no keyboard so I'm using the rotor to sift through the big site with all kinds of extra content. I'm outside, I'm on the go, just trying to look something up.