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Change Proposal for not including longdesc=""

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Revision as of 01:15, 11 February 2010 by Hixie (talk | contribs) (Created page with '== Summary == The longdesc="" attribute does not improve accessibility in practice and should not be included in the language. == Rationale == Several studies (listed in the r...')
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Summary

The longdesc="" attribute does not improve accessibility in practice and should not be included in the language.

Rationale

Several studies (listed in the references) have been performed. They have shown that:

  • longdesc is extremely rarely used (on the order of 0.1% in one study). [1]
  • when used, longdesc is extremely rarely used correctly (on the order of 1% in a study that only excluded obvious errors; below the threshold of statistical significance on one that examined each longdesc="" by hand). [1] [2]
  • AT users don't know that longdesc="" exists. [3]
  • most users (more than 90%) don't want the interaction model that longdesc="" implies. [4]

Details

No change to the spec.

Impact

Positive Effects

  • Stops authors from spending time trying to use a feature that they don't understand and that users don't want.
  • Encourages authors to include suitable information in an alternative form that is more likely to be accurate.
  • Results in better overall accessibility on the long term.

Negative Effects

  • ?

Conformance Classes Changes

No change to spec.

Risks

  • ?

References