--- a/longdesc1/longdesc.html Wed Jul 03 00:07:45 2013 +0400
+++ b/longdesc1/longdesc.html Mon Aug 05 15:40:39 2013 -0400
@@ -1,37 +1,1 @@
-<html dir="ltr" lang="en">
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="content-type">
<title>HTML Image Description Extension (longdesc)</title>
<style>
.issue {border: dashed red 2px; background-color: #ffd}
.example {color: #404; background-color:#eee}
.example::before {float:left;
margin-top: -.2em;
background-color: white;
display: block;
border: 1px solid black;
color: #404;
padding: 2px;
content: "Example: (non-normative)"}
.example:first-child {padding-top:1em}
/* Make these stand-out more... */
.externalDFN {
font-style: italic;
background-color: #fff9d6;
}
/* Switch statement */
dl.switch dt::before {
content: "↪ ";
margin-left: 1em;
}
/* Better spacing around various lists (implied paragraph children) */
ol > li, section:not(#toc) ul > li, section dl > dt {
margin: 1em 0;
}
/* domintro styling */
dl.domintro {
background-color: rgb(221, 255, 221);
padding: 1em 0.5em 1em 2em;
clear: both;
}
dl.domintro dt {
color: black;
}
dl.domintro > dd {
color: green;
}
dl.domintro::before {
float: right;
background-color: white;
display: block;
border: 2px solid black;
color: green;
margin-top: -20px;
padding: 2px;
content: "This box is non-normative.";
}
/* Fancy table stuff */
table {
border-collapse: collapse;
}
thead tr {
border-bottom: 2px solid black;
}
tbody tr:not(:last-child) {
border-bottom: 1px solid black;
}
td {
border-left: 1px solid black;
padding: 4px;
}
/*****************************************************************
* ReSpec 3 CSS
* Robin Berjon - http://berjon.com/
*****************************************************************/
/* --- INLINES --- */
em.rfc2119 {
text-transform: lowercase;
font-variant: small-caps;
font-style: normal;
color: #900;
}
h1 acronym, h2 acronym, h3 acronym, h4 acronym, h5 acronym, h6 acronym, a acronym,
h1 abbr, h2 abbr, h3 abbr, h4 abbr, h5 abbr, h6 abbr, a abbr {
border: none;
}
dfn {
font-weight: bold;
}
a.internalDFN {
color: inherit;
border-bottom: 1px solid #99c;
text-decoration: none;
}
a.externalDFN {
color: inherit;
border-bottom: 1px dotted #ccc;
text-decoration: none;
}
a.bibref {
text-decoration: none;
}
cite .bibref {
font-style: normal;
}
/* --- TOC --- */
.toc a, .tof a {
text-decoration: none;
}
a .secno, a .figno {
color: #000;
}
ul.tof, ol.tof {
list-style: none outside none;
}
.caption {
margin-top: 0.5em;
font-style: italic;
}
/* --- DL --- */
.section dd > p:first-child {
margin-top: 0;
}
.section dd > p:last-child {
margin-bottom: 0;
}
.section dd {
margin-bottom: 1em;
}
.section dl.attrs dd, .section dl.eldef dd {
margin-bottom: 0;
}
/* --- ISSUES/NOTES --- */
div.note-title {
padding-right: 1em;
min-width: 7.5em;
color: #b9ab2d;
}
div.note-title { color: #52e052; }
div.note-title span {
text-transform: uppercase;
}
div.note {
margin-top: 1em;
margin-bottom: 1em;
}
.note > p:first-child { margin-top: 0 }
.note {
padding: .5em;
border-left-width: .5em;
border-left-style: solid;
}
div.note {
padding: 0.5em;
margin: 1em 0;
position: relative;
clear: both;
}
span.note { padding: .1em .5em .15em; }
.note {
border-color: #52e052;
background: #e9fbe9;
}
pre.idl {
border-top: 1px solid #90b8de;
border-bottom: 1px solid #90b8de;
padding: 1em;
line-height: 120%;
}
pre.idl::before {
content: "WebIDL";
display: block;
width: 8ex;
background: #90b8de;
color: #fff;
font-family: initial;
padding: 3px;
font-weight: bold;
margin: -1em 0 1em -1em;
}
.idlType {
color: #ff4500;
font-weight: bold;
text-decoration: none;
}
/*.idlInterface*/
.idlInterfaceID, .idlDictionaryID, .idlCallbackID, .idlEnumID {
font-weight: bold;
color: #005a9c;
}
.idlSuperclass {
font-style: italic;
color: #005a9c;
}
/*.idlAttribute*/
.idlAttrType, .idlFieldType, .idlMemberType {
color: #005a9c;
}
.idlAttrName, .idlFieldName, .idlMemberName {
color: #ff4500;
}
.idlAttrName a, .idlFieldName a, .idlMemberName a {
color: #ff4500;
border-bottom: 1px dotted #ff4500;
text-decoration: none;
}
.extAttr {
color: #666;
}
/*.idlConst*/
.idlConstType {
color: #005a9c;
}
.idlConstName {
color: #ff4500;
}
.idlConstName a {
color: #ff4500;
border-bottom: 1px dotted #ff4500;
text-decoration: none;
}
.idlImplements a {
font-weight: bold;
}
dl.attributes, dl.methods, dl.constants, dl.fields, dl.dictionary-members {
margin-left: 2em;
}
.attributes dt, .methods dt, .constants dt, .fields dt, .dictionary-members dt {
font-weight: normal;
}
.attributes dt code, .methods dt code, .constants dt code, .fields dt code, .dictionary-members dt code {
font-weight: bold;
color: #000;
font-family: monospace;
}
.attributes dt code, .fields dt code, .dictionary-members dt code {
background: #ffffd2;
}
.attributes dt .idlAttrType code, .fields dt .idlFieldType code, .dictionary-members dt .idlMemberType code {
color: #005a9c;
background: transparent;
font-family: inherit;
font-weight: normal;
font-style: italic;
}
.attributes dd, .methods dd, .constants dd, .fields dd, .dictionary-members dd {
margin-bottom: 1em;
}
</style> <link href="prism.css" rel="stylesheet">
<link href="https://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/TR/W3C-ED" rel="stylesheet">
<!--[if lt IE 9]><script src='undefined://www.w3.org/2008/site/js/html5shiv.js'></script><![endif]-->
</head>
<body>
<div class="head">
<p> <a href="http://www.w3.org/"><img alt="W3C" src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/w3c_home"
height="48"
width="72"></a>
</p>
<h1 class="title" id="title">HTML5 Image Description Extension (<code>longdesc</code>)</h1>
<h2 id="w3c-working-draft-20-september-2012"><abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
Editors' Draft (proposed as Last Call draft) 2 July 2013</h2>
<dl>
<dt>Latest published version:</dt>
<dd><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/HTML-longdesc">http://www.w3.org/TR/HTML-longdesc</a></dd>
<dt>Latest editor's draft:</dt>
<dd> <a href="http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/html-proposals/raw-file/default/longdesc1/longdesc.html">http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/html-proposals/raw-file/default/longdesc1/longdesc.html</a></dd>
<dt>Editors:</dt>
<dd><a href="mailto:chaals@yandex-team.ru">Charles (McCathie) Nevile</a>,
<a href="http://www.yandex.ru">Яндекс</a>—<a href="http://yandex.com">Yandex</a></dd>
</dl>
<p class="copyright"> <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Copyright">Copyright</a>
© 2012-2013 <a href="http://www.w3.org/"><abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr></a><sup>®</sup>
(<a href="http://www.csail.mit.edu/"><abbr title="Massachusetts Institute of Technology">MIT</abbr></a>,
<a href="http://www.ercim.eu/"><abbr title="European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics">ERCIM</abbr></a>,
<a href="http://www.keio.ac.jp/">Keio</a>, <a href="http://ev.buaa.edu.cn/">Beihang</a>),
- All Rights Reserved. <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
<a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Legal_Disclaimer">liability</a>,
<a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#W3C_Trademarks">trademark</a>,
<a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-documents">document
- use</a> and <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-software">software
- licensing</a> rules apply. </p>
<hr> </div>
<section class="introductory" id="abstract">
<h2>Abstract</h2>
<p>This specification defines a <code>longdesc</code> attribute (based on
the <code>longdesc</code> attribute of HTML 4) to link descriptions to
images in HTML5 content. </p>
<p>Note that by allowing a hyperlink inside another one, this document
explicitly redefines the HTML concept of hyperlink in a limited set of
circumstances.</p>
</section>
<section class="introductory" id="sotd">
<h2>Status of This Document</h2>
<p> <em>This section describes the status of this document at the time of
its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list
of current <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be
found in the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/"><abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
technical reports index</a> at http://www.w3.org/TR/.</em> </p>
<p> This document is [proposed to the HTML and PF Working Groups by the
HTML Accessibility Task Force for publication as] a Last Call Working
Draft. If you wish to make comments regarding this document, please send
them to <a href="mailto:public-html-a11y@w3.org">public-html-a11y@w3.org</a>
(<a href="mailto:public-html-a11y-request@w3.org?subject=subscribe">subscribe</a>,
<a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/">archives</a>).
-All
feedback is welcome. Bugs can also be filed directly into the <a href="https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/buglist.cgi?product=HTML%20WG&amp;component=HTML%20Image%20Description%20Extension">W3C
- Bug tracker for this specification</a>. In order to be considered
under the W3C Last Call Process, bugs must be filed or email sent to the
mailing list within 60 days of the publication date [which will be given
explicitly in the published Last Call].</p>
<p>Following feedback on the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-html-longdesc-20130312/">First
- Public Working Draft</a>, a number of <a href="https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/buglist.cgi?product=HTML%20WG&amp;component=HTML%20Image%20Description%20Extension">bugs</a>
were raised and resolved and a <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-html-longdesc-20130606/">Second
- Public Working Draft</a> was published for review. Review of this
draft did not produce any new substantive issues, and a <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2013Jun/0072.html">Call
for Consensus</a> of the Task Force to request this be published as
the Last Call Working Draft <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2013Jul/0003.html">passed
without dissent</a>.</p>
<p>Significant changes between successive public drafts are tracked in the
<a href="#changes">Change History section</a>.</p>
<section class="introductory" id="sotd">
<p>This document is intended to become a <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
Recommendation, either on its own or merged into an HTML
Recommendation. </p>
<p> Publication as a Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the <abbr
title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or
obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite
this document as other than work in progress. </p>
<p> This document was produced by a group operating under the <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/">5
February 2004 <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
Patent Policy</a>. <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
maintains a <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/01/pp-impl/42538/status"
rel="disclosure">public
- list of any patent disclosures</a> made in connection with the
deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for
disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a
patent which the individual believes contains <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/#def-essential">Essential
- Claim(s)</a> must disclose the information in accordance with <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/#sec-Disclosure">section
- 6</a> of the <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
Patent Policy. </p>
</section>
</section>
<section id="toc">
<h2 class="introductory">Table of Contents</h2>
<ul class="toc">
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#intro"><span class="secno">
</span>Introduction</a></li>
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#conformance"><span class="secno">1.
- </span>Conformance</a>
<ul class="toc">
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#dependencies"><span class="secno">1.1
- </span>Dependencies</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#UCnR"><span class="secno">2.
- </span>Use Cases and Requirements</a></li>
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#longdesc"><span class="secno">3.
- </span>The <code>longdesc</code> Attribute</a>
<ul class="toc">
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#extensions-to-the-element-interface"><span
class="secno">3.1
- </span>Extensions to the <code>HTMLImageElement</code>
interface</a>
<ul class="toc">
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#attributes"><span
class="secno">3.1.1
- </span>Attribute</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#acknowledgements"><span class="secno">A.
- </span>Acknowledgements</a></li>
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#references"><span class="secno">B.
- </span>References</a>
<ul class="toc">
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#normative-references"><span
class="secno">B.1
- </span>Normative references</a></li>
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#informative-references"><span
class="secno">B.2
- </span>Informative references</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#changes"><span class="secno">C.
- </span>Change History</a></li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="intro" class="introductory">
<h1>Introduction</h1>
<p>HTML 4 provided a <code>longdesc</code> attribute for the <code>img</code>
element that enabled a machine-discoverable description of an image to
be linked to the image. This extension specification defines a <code>longdesc</code>
attribute to provide that functionality for HTML5.</p>
<pre class="example"><code class="language-markup">
<!-- The description is somewhere on the same page as the image -->
<img src="http://example.com/graph1" alt="(Drinks are getting sweeter)"
title="Figure One" longdesc="#graph1Explained">
<!-- The description is a page on its own -->
<img src="figure1" alt="figure 1" longdesc="http://example.com/desc1">
<!-- The description is one of several within an external page -->
<img src="ExampleImage" alt="example" longdesc="http://example.com/descs#item3">
<!-- The description is included in a data: URI -->
<img src="logo" alt="W3C" longdesc="data:text/html;charset=utf-8;,%3C!DOCTYPE%20html%3E
%3Chtml%3E%3Chead%3E%3Ctitle%3EDescription%20of%20the%20W3C%20Logo%3C/title%3E%3C/head%3E
%3Cbody%3E%3Cp%3EA%20blue%20capital%20letter%20%22W%22%20with%20kerning%20so%20it%20
touches%20a%20blue%203%2C%20followed%20by%20a%20black%20shadow%20of%20a%20white%20
capital%20letter%20C%20all%20on%20a%20white%20background%3C/body%3E%3C/html%3E"></code></pre>
</section>
<section id="conformance">
<h2><span class="secno">1. </span>Conformance</h2>
<p>As well as sections marked as non-normative, all authoring guidelines,
diagrams, examples, and notes in this specification are non-normative.
Everything else in this specification is normative. </p>
<p>The key words <em title="must" class="rfc2119">must</em>, <em title="should"
class="rfc2119">should</em>,
<em title="should not" class="rfc2119"></em><em title="recommended" class="rfc2119"></em>and
- <em title="may" class="rfc2119">may</em><em title="optional" class="rfc2119"></em>
in this specification are to be interpreted as described in [<cite><a class="bibref"
href="#bib-RFC2119">RFC2119</a></cite>].</p>
<section id="dependencies">
<h3><span class="secno">1.1 </span>Dependencies and definitions</h3>
<p>The IDL fragments in this specification <em title="must" class="rfc2119">must</em>
be interpreted as required for conforming IDL fragments, as described
in the Web IDL specification. [<cite><a class="bibref" href="#bib-WEBIDL">WEBIDL</a></cite>]</p>
<p>The terms "<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/infrastructure.html#valid-url-potentially-surrounded-by-spaces">valid
- non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces</a>", "<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/links.html#hyperlink">hyperlink"</a>,
and "<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/infrastructure.html#reflect">reflect</a>",
- used in this specification are defined in [<cite><a class="bibref" href="#bib-HTML5">HTML5</a></cite>],
- although this specification modifies the semantics of the term
"hyperlink" in allowing hyperlinks to be nested in certain specific
circumstances.</p>
<p>This document does not define the term "accessible" nor
accessibility, but uses them with the sense they have in [<a href="#bib-WCAG2">WCAG</a>]</p>
</section>
</section>
<section id="UCnR">
<h2><span class="secno">2. </span>Use Cases and Requirements</h2>
<p>There are many ways users can successfully interact with images even if
they cannot see, or see well. The <code>alt</code> attribute is
designed to ensure that for everyday work, a user has enough information
to replace an image, and often this is more helpful than a detailed
description of every image. The <code>longdesc</code> attribute is
designed to complement this functionality, to meet the following use
cases. </p>
<h3 id="use-cases">Use Cases</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Identifying a well-known image</dt>
</dl>
<dl>
<dd>Identifying an image is often important context for a discussion.
There are many well-known images which are widely reproduced and well
known. In some cases, such as "Mona Lisa", "Gerníka", Cubbin's "Lost",
Leunig's "ramming the shears", the most effective way to identify an
image is to use its title, creator, and similar information that would
be found in a catalog. But different people know images by different
titles, and some titles are not well known. Where the image itself
cannot be seen, a description can often be used to offer easier
recognition than the cataloging information, for example "Washington
crossing some river, standing heroically in the boat, while soldiers
do the hard work", or "the Da Vinci picture of the guy in a square and
a circle".</dd>
<dd><em>Requires</em>: Discoverability</dd>
<dd><em>Helped by</em>: Inline, Reuse</dd>
<dt>Describing a complex diagram</dt>
<dd>In many environments diagrams are used to explain a concept or
transmit information efficiently. For a user with a reduced ability to
see the image (poor contrast vision and other conditions are as
relevant here as a complete lack of vision), a description can enable
that user to understand the information being presented.</dd>
<dd><em>Requires</em>: Structured Markup, Inline, Reuse, Simple Return</dd>
<dt>Teaching Accessible Development</dt>
<dd>In many environments producing content that is accessible to users
regardless of disability is a legal and/or market requirement. </dd>
<dd><em>Requires</em>: Maintenance, Backwards compatibility</dd>
<dt>A self-describing artistic work</dt>
<dd>The visual design of many pages is an important part of the message
the author intends to convey to a fully-sighted user. Many authors
would like to convey as much of that design as possible to a user with
low or no vision. </dd>
<dd><em>Requires</em>: No visual encumbrance, Structured Markup</dd>
<dd><em>Helped by</em>: Reuse, Simple Return</dd>
<dt>Referring to an existing description</dt>
<dd>Many well-known images are already described by other sources. The
copyright on those sources may not be compatible with re-publishing
the description, but there is little value in making a new one. </dd>
<dd><em>Requires</em>: Reuse, Structured Markup, Simple Return, Optional
Consumption </dd>
<dd><em>Helped by</em>: No Visual Encumbrance</dd>
<dt>Linking to a description included within a page</dt>
<dd>If an image already has a description included within a page, making
the linkage explicit can provide further clarity for a user who is not
able to interpret the default layout. For example this happens when
users force a re-layout of the page elements because they have
magnified the content, or because they do not see the default visual
relationship between the element and its description.</dd>
<dd>This practice also enables description to be provided for all users.</dd>
<dd>By keeping the association clear the content maintainer can more
easily check that the description and link are actually correct.</dd>
<dd><em>Requires</em>: Inline, Simple Return, Structured Markup,
Optional Consumption </dd>
<dt>Localizing descriptions</dt>
<dd>When content is localized to multiple languages, it is important
that metadata intended for human consumption, such as image
descriptions, can be readily localized.</dd>
<dd><em>Helped by</em>: Structured Markup, Reuse, Maintenance.</dd>
</dl>
<h3 id="requirements">Requirements for an Image Description functionality</h3>
<dl>
<dt>No visual encumbrance</dt>
<dd>It <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be possible to provide a
description for an image without forcing the description to be
rendered on the page.</dd>
<dt>Structured Markup</dt>
<dd>It <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be possible to include rich markup
(e.g. HTML5) in the description of the image.</dd>
<dt>Inline</dt>
<dd>It <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be possible to associate a
description in the body of a page with an image in that page. </dd>
<dt>Reuse</dt>
<dd>It <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be possible to re-use a single
description for multiple occurrences of an image.</dd>
<dt>Maintenance</dt>
<dd>It <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be simple to maintain a library of
images and descriptions for dynamic assembly, or dis-assembly and
re-assembly, of content. </dd>
<dt>Discoverability </dt>
<dd class="rfc2119">It <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be simple for a
user agent to automatically discover a description provided for a
given image.</dd>
<dd>A user <em class="rfc2119">should</em> be able to determine that
there is a description available for a given image. </dd>
<dt>Optional consumption</dt>
<dd>A user <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be able to choose not to read
the long description of a given image.</dd>
<dt>Simple return</dt>
<dd>A user <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be able to return from the
description to the image. </dd>
<dt>Backwards Compatibility </dt>
<dd>It <em class="rfc2119">should</em> be possible to use existing
tools and techniques to associate an image with its description. </dd>
</dl>
</section>
<section id="longdesc">
<h2><span class="secno"></span>3. The <code>longdesc</code> attribute</h2>
<p>Note that this extension changes the definition of a hyperlink in HTML,
by allowing a <code>longdesc</code> attribute to occur inside a
hyperlink.</p>
<h3 id="implementation">3.0 Implementation</h3>
<h4 id="authors-and-conformance-checkers">3.0.1 Authors and Conformance
checkers</h4>
<section id="parsing">
<p class="rfc2119">Zero or one <code>longdesc</code> attributes <em class="rfc2119">may</em>
be added to any <code>img</code> element.</p>
<p>The <code>longdesc</code> attribute <em class="rfc2119">must</em>
contain a <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/infrastructure.html#valid-url-potentially-surrounded-by-spaces">valid
- non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces</a>. The URL is a <a
href="http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/links.html#hyperlink">hyperlink</a>
to a description of the image that the parent <code>img</code>
element represents. </p>
<p>The linked description <em class="rfc2119">should</em> be in a
broadly accessible format.</p>
<div class="note">
<p><em>This section is not normative</em></p>
<p>Best practices for checking descriptions of images are beyond the
scope of this document, but there are many resources available.
For further guidance tool developers can consult e.g. [<a href="#bib-ATAGB3">ATAGB3</a>].
- <span class="issue">ISSUE: This doesn't seem a great reference - is
there anything better? This is tracked in <a href="https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=21501">bug
- 21501</a> and its dependent bugs. Unless a proposal for
improvement is made and accepted this bug will simply be closed
after Last Call.</span></p>
<p>High quality implementation in authoring and content management
tools is likely to include checking for common errors, such as
including a description instead of a URL in the attribute, or
pointing to a resource that is an image or plain text, which are
often poor choices for a high-quality description.</p>
<p>This document does not define the term "accessible", nor
accessibility. For further guidance on making an accessible
document, authors can consult e.g. [<a href="file:///Users/chaals/Documents/w3c/html-proposals/longdesc1/longdesc.html#bib-WCAG2">WCAG</a>].</p>
</div>
<h4 id="authors">3.0.2 Authors</h4>
<p>Authors <em class="rfc2119">should</em> put descriptions within an
element which is the target of a fragment link (e.g. <code>longdesc="example.html#description"</code>)
if a description is only part of the target document. </p>
<div class="note">
<p><em>This section is not normative</em></p>
<p>Best practices for full descriptions of images are beyond the scope
of this document, but there are many resources available.</p>
</div>
<h4 id="user-agents">3.0.3 User Agents</h4>
<p>If the <code>longdesc</code> value is valid, User agents <em class="rfc2119">must</em>
make the link available to all users through the regular user
interface(s). </p>
<p>If the <code>longdesc</code> value is valid, User agents <em class="rfc2119">must</em>
expose the link to relevant APIs, especially accessibility-oriented
APIs. </p>
<p>User agents <em class="rfc2119">should</em> enable users to discover
when images in a page contain a long description.</p>
<div class="note">
<p><em>This section is not normative</em></p>
<p><code>longdesc</code> can be present on an image within a
hyperlink. This does not change the requirements on user agents,
which must still enable the hyperlink to be followed.</p>
<p>Complete documentation of best practices for implementation is
beyond the scope of this document. These notes are offered to help
minimise the impact of common mistakes.</p>
<p>A common mistake in the past has been to use a description, instead
of a URL that links to a description. Converting such values to
data: URLs is a repair strategy for user agents that can help users
to recover in cases where authors have made this mistake. </p>
<p>It is usually helpful when the behaviour for finding, reading, and
returning from a long description to the image described is a
consistent experience.</p>
<p>Further information on making user agents accessible can be found
in [<a href="file:///Users/chaals/Documents/w3c/html-proposals/longdesc1/longdesc.html#bib-UAAG">UAAG</a>].</p>
</div>
</section>
<section id="extensions-to-the-element-interface">
<h3><span class="secno">3.1 </span>Extension to the <code><a title="element"
class="externalDFN"
data-spec="HTML5">HTMLImageElement</a></code>
interface</h3>
<pre class="idl"><span class="idlInterface" id="idl-def-Element">partial interface <span
class="idlInterfaceID">HTMLImageElement</span> {
<span class="idlAttribute"> attribute <span class="idlAttrType"><a>DOMString</a></span> <span
class="idlAttrName"><a
href="#widl-Element-longdesc">longdesc</a></span>;</span>
};</span></pre>
<section id="attributes">
<h4><span class="secno">3.1.1 </span>Attribute</h4>
<dl class="attributes">
<dt id="widl-Element-longdesc"><code>longdesc</code> of type <span
class="idlAttrType"><a>DOMString</a></span></dt>
<dd>
<p class="rfc2119">The <dfn id="dfn-dom-element-longdesc"><code>longdesc</code></dfn>
IDL attribute <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be a valid
non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces. It defines a
hyperlink to a detailed description of the image its parent <code><a
title="element"
class="externalDFN"
data-spec="DOM4">HTMLImageElement</a></code>
represents.</p>
</dd>
<dd>
<p>The <code>longdesc</code> IDL attribute <em class="rfc2119">must</em>
<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/infrastructure.html#reflect">reflect</a>
the HTML content attribute <code>longdesc</code>. </p>
</dd>
<dd>
<dl class="note">
<dt>
<p><em>This section is not normative</em></p>
<p><var>image</var>.<code title="dom-Element-innerHTML">longdesc</code>
[ = <var>value</var> ]</p>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>Returns a DOMString that represents the attribute's
contents. </p>
<p>Can be set, to replace the contents of the attribute with
the given string.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
<pre class="example"><code class="language-javascript">/*Make the first internal longdesc reference absolute*/
var baseURL = document.location.origin + document.location.pathname
var someImage = document.querySelector('img[longdesc^=#]');
someImage.longdesc = baseURL + someImage.longdesc;</code></pre>
<pre class="example"><code class="language-javascript">/*Open new windows for each longdesc found*/
var describedImages = document.querySelectorAll('img[longdesc]');
for (i in describedImages) {
if (i.longdesc)
window.open(i.longdesc);
}</code></pre>
<pre class="example"><code class="language-javascript">/*Tries to repair errors where the longdesc isn't a URI*/
var describedImages = document.querySelectorAll('img[longdesc]');
for (i in describedImages) {
if (i.longdesc && !(validURL(i.longdesc)) { //assumes some URL validating function
var theData = encodeURIComponent(i.longdesc);
i.longdesc = "data:text/plain;charset=";
i.longdesc += document.charset;
i.longdesc += theData;
}
}</code></pre>
</section>
</section>
<section class="appendix" id="acknowledgements">
<h2><span class="secno">A. </span>Acknowledgements</h2>
<p><em>This section is not normative</em></p>
<p>Thanks to the HTML Working Group of the late 1990s for the original
specification of longdesc, to those who have implemented it in various
kinds of software, and to many many people involved with the
development of HTML5 (including but not limited to those who discussed
"ISSUE-30" in the HTML Working Group, the Protocols and Formats
Working Group, the W3C Advisory Board, and around countless dinner
tables, coffee breaks, and elsewhere) for the ideas, discussions and
contributions that led to the initial draft of this specification.
With the exception of Laura Carlson, who did far more very valuable
work than it took me to produce this specification, I haven't named
them: the list might be larger than the content of the specification.</p>
<p>For specific comments and suggestions that led to improvements over
successive drafts of this specification, thanks to the W3C's HTML
Accessibility Task Force, the W3C Internationalization Working Group,
and to Jonathan Avila, Robin Berjon, James Craig, Paul Cotton, Steve
Faulkner, John Foliot, Geoff Freed, Peter Gruzca, Richard Ishida, Anne
van Kesteren, David MacDonald, Michelle McManus, Chris Mills, Jay
Munro, Devarshi Pant, Marta Pawlowska, Silvia Pfeiffer, Wendy Seltzer,
Leif Halvard Silli, Mathew Turvey, Klaas 'Z4us' V, and Boris Zbarsky.
The code examples are rendered with Lea Verou's prism tools. Any
errors are despite, not as a result of, their efforts.</p>
</section>
<section class="appendix" id="references">
<h2><span class="secno">B. </span>References</h2>
<section id="normative-references">
<h3><span class="secno">B.1 </span>Normative references</h3>
<dl class="bibliography">
<dt id="bib-HTML5">[HTML5]</dt>
<dd>Robin Berjon et. al., eds. <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/"><cite>HTML5.</cite></a>
W3C Working Draft. (Work in progress.) URL: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/">http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/</a>
</dd>
<dt id="bib-RFC2119">[RFC2119]</dt>
<dd>S. Bradner. <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt"><cite>Key
- words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels.</cite></a>
March 1997. Internet RFC 2119. URL: <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt">http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt</a></dd>
<dt id="bib-WEBIDL">[WEBIDL]</dt>
<dd>Cameron McCormack. <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-WebIDL-20110927/"><cite>Web
- IDL.</cite></a> 27 September 2011. W3C Working Draft. (Work in
progress.) URL: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-WebIDL-20110927/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-WebIDL-20110927/</a></dd>
</dl>
</section>
<section id="informative-references">
<h3><span class="secno">B.2 </span>Informative references</h3>
<dl class="bibliography">
<dt id="bib-ATAGB3">[ATAGB3]</dt>
<dd>Jutta Treviranus et. al., eds. <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/ATAG20-TECHS/#principle_b3"><cite>Implementing
- ATAG 2.0</cite></a>, Principle B3 "Authors must be supported
in improving the accessibility of existing content" October 2011.
W3C Working Draft. URL: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/ATAG20-TECHS/#principle_b3">http://www.w3.org/TR/ATAG20-TECHS/#principle_b3</a></dd>
<dt id="bib-WCAG2">[WCAG]</dt>
<dd>Ben Caldwell et. al., eds. <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/"><cite>Web
- Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0</cite></a>, December
2008. W3C Recommendation. URL: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/</a></dd>
<dt id="bib-UAAG">[UAAG]</dt>
<dd>Ian Jacobs et. al., eds. <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-UAAG10-20021217/"><cite>User
- Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0</cite></a>, December 2002.
W3C Recommendation. URL: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-UAAG10-20021217/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-UAAG10-20021217/</a>.
A draft for a version 2.0 is available at <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/UAAG20/">http://www.w3.org/TR/UAAG20/</a></dd>
</dl>
</section>
<section class="appendix" id="changes">
<h2><span class="secno">C. </span>Change History</h2>
<p>(This section is not normative)</p>
<h3>Between this draft and the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-html-longdesc-20130606/">Second
- Public Working Draft</a> </h3>
<p>Editorial changes include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Explicitly stating that <code>longdesc</code> makes a limited
change to the semantics of the term "hyperlink" in HTML</li>
<li>Editing of the non-normative guidance in various places.</li>
<li>Explicitly adding a reference to the software license to allow
people to re-use the code samples and IDL more easily with fewer
restrictions.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Between the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-html-longdesc-20130606/">Second
- Public Working Draft</a> and the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-html-longdesc-20130312/">First
- Public Working Draft</a> <br>
</h3>
<p>Substantive changes include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Added a requirement that the destination of a <code>longdesc</code>
<em class="rfc2119">should</em> be "accessible".</li>
<li>The requirement to present content through the standard User
Interface was changed from <em class="rfc2119">should</em> to <em
class="rfc2119">must</em>.
</li>
<li>The requirement to present content through the standard User
Interface was narrowed to apply only to valid values of <code>longdesc</code>.</li>
<li>The requirement to present content through the Accessibility
APIs was changed from <em class="rfc2119">should</em> to <em class="rfc2119">must</em>.
</li>
<li>The requirement to present content through the Accessibility
APIs was narrowed to apply only to valid values of <code>longdesc</code>.</li>
<li>The IDL attribute <code>longdesc</code> was changed to <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/infrastructure.html#reflect">reflect</a>
the HTML content attribute <code>longdesc</code>.</li>
</ul>
<p>Editorial changes include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Clarifying that the document does not define "accessible",
except that it is used in the sense that it is used in [<a href="#bib-WCAG2">WCAG</a>].</li>
<li>Sectioning requirements according to whom they apply.</li>
<li>Removed the statement that User Agents <em title="may" class="rfc2119">may</em><em
title="optional"
class="rfc2119"></em>
present descriptions which are erroneously included in the content
instead of a link.</li>
<li>Added more examples</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
</section>
<script src="prism.js" data-default-language="markup"></script>
</body>
</html>
\ No newline at end of file
+<!DOCTYPE html>
<html dir="ltr" lang="en">
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="content-type">
<title>HTML5 Image Description Extension (longdesc)</title>
<style type="text/css">
.issue {border: dashed red 2px; background-color: #ffd}
.example {color: #404; background-color:#eee}
.example::before {float:left;
margin-top: -.2em;
background-color: white;
display: block;
border: 1px solid black;
color: #404;
padding: 2px;
content: "Example: (non-normative)"}
.example:first-child {padding-top:1em}
/* Make these stand-out more... */
.externalDFN {
font-style: italic;
background-color: #fff9d6;
}
/* Switch statement */
dl.switch dt::before {
content: "↪ ";
margin-left: 1em;
}
/* Better spacing around various lists (implied paragraph children) */
ol > li, section:not(#toc) ul > li, section dl > dt {
margin: 1em 0;
}
/* domintro styling */
dl.domintro {
background-color: rgb(221, 255, 221);
padding: 1em 0.5em 1em 2em;
clear: both;
}
dl.domintro dt {
color: black;
}
dl.domintro > dd {
color: green;
}
dl.domintro::before {
float: right;
background-color: white;
display: block;
border: 2px solid black;
color: green;
margin-top: -20px;
padding: 2px;
content: "This box is non-normative.";
}
/* Fancy table stuff */
table {
border-collapse: collapse;
}
thead tr {
border-bottom: 2px solid black;
}
tbody tr:not(:last-child) {
border-bottom: 1px solid black;
}
td {
border-left: 1px solid black;
padding: 4px;
}
/*****************************************************************
* ReSpec 3 CSS
* Robin Berjon - http://berjon.com/
*****************************************************************/
/* --- INLINES --- */
em.rfc2119 {
text-transform: lowercase;
font-variant: small-caps;
font-style: normal;
color: #900;
}
h1 acronym, h2 acronym, h3 acronym, h4 acronym, h5 acronym, h6 acronym, a acronym,
h1 abbr, h2 abbr, h3 abbr, h4 abbr, h5 abbr, h6 abbr, a abbr {
border: none;
}
dfn {
font-weight: bold;
}
a.internalDFN {
color: inherit;
border-bottom: 1px solid #99c;
text-decoration: none;
}
a.externalDFN {
color: inherit;
border-bottom: 1px dotted #ccc;
text-decoration: none;
}
a.bibref {
text-decoration: none;
}
cite .bibref {
font-style: normal;
}
/* --- TOC --- */
.toc a, .tof a {
text-decoration: none;
}
a .secno, a .figno {
color: #000;
}
ul.tof, ol.tof {
list-style: none outside none;
}
.caption {
margin-top: 0.5em;
font-style: italic;
}
/* --- DL --- */
.section dd > p:first-child {
margin-top: 0;
}
.section dd > p:last-child {
margin-bottom: 0;
}
.section dd {
margin-bottom: 1em;
}
.section dl.attrs dd, .section dl.eldef dd {
margin-bottom: 0;
}
/* --- ISSUES/NOTES --- */
div.note-title {
padding-right: 1em;
min-width: 7.5em;
color: #b9ab2d;
}
div.note-title { color: #52e052; }
div.note-title span {
text-transform: uppercase;
}
div.note {
margin-top: 1em;
margin-bottom: 1em;
}
.note > p:first-child { margin-top: 0 }
.note {
padding: .5em;
border-left-width: .5em;
border-left-style: solid;
}
div.note {
padding: 0.5em;
margin: 1em 0;
position: relative;
clear: both;
}
span.note { padding: .1em .5em .15em; }
.note {
border-color: #52e052;
background: #e9fbe9;
}
pre.idl {
border-top: 1px solid #90b8de;
border-bottom: 1px solid #90b8de;
padding: 1em;
line-height: 120%;
}
pre.idl::before {
content: "WebIDL";
display: block;
width: 8ex;
background: #90b8de;
color: #fff;
font-family: initial;
padding: 3px;
font-weight: bold;
margin: -1em 0 1em -1em;
}
.idlType {
color: #ff4500;
font-weight: bold;
text-decoration: none;
}
/*.idlInterface*/
.idlInterfaceID, .idlDictionaryID, .idlCallbackID, .idlEnumID {
font-weight: bold;
color: #005a9c;
}
.idlSuperclass {
font-style: italic;
color: #005a9c;
}
/*.idlAttribute*/
.idlAttrType, .idlFieldType, .idlMemberType {
color: #005a9c;
}
.idlAttrName, .idlFieldName, .idlMemberName {
color: #ff4500;
}
.idlAttrName a, .idlFieldName a, .idlMemberName a {
color: #ff4500;
border-bottom: 1px dotted #ff4500;
text-decoration: none;
}
.extAttr {
color: #666;
}
/*.idlConst*/
.idlConstType {
color: #005a9c;
}
.idlConstName {
color: #ff4500;
}
.idlConstName a {
color: #ff4500;
border-bottom: 1px dotted #ff4500;
text-decoration: none;
}
.idlImplements a {
font-weight: bold;
}
dl.attributes, dl.methods, dl.constants, dl.fields, dl.dictionary-members {
margin-left: 2em;
}
.attributes dt, .methods dt, .constants dt, .fields dt, .dictionary-members dt {
font-weight: normal;
}
.attributes dt code, .methods dt code, .constants dt code, .fields dt code, .dictionary-members dt code {
font-weight: bold;
color: #000;
font-family: monospace;
}
.attributes dt code, .fields dt code, .dictionary-members dt code {
background: #ffffd2;
}
.attributes dt .idlAttrType code, .fields dt .idlFieldType code, .dictionary-members dt .idlMemberType code {
color: #005a9c;
background: transparent;
font-family: inherit;
font-weight: normal;
font-style: italic;
}
.attributes dd, .methods dd, .constants dd, .fields dd, .dictionary-members dd {
margin-bottom: 1em;
}
</style> <link href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-html-longdesc-20130716/prism.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<link href="https://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/TR/W3C-ED" rel="stylesheet">
<!--[if lt IE 9]><script src='undefined://www.w3.org/2008/site/js/html5shiv.js'></script><![endif]-->
</head>
<body>
<div class="head">
<p><a href="http://www.w3.org/"><img alt="W3C" src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/w3c_home"
height="48"
width="72"></a>
</p>
<h1 class="title" id="title">HTML5 Image Description Extension (<code>longdesc</code>)</h1>
<h2 id="w3c-working-draft-20-september-2012"><abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
Editors' Draft (proposed as Last Call draft) 2 July 2013</h2>
<dl>
<dt>Latest published version:</dt>
<dd><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/HTML-longdesc">http://www.w3.org/TR/HTML-longdesc</a></dd>
<dt>Latest editor's draft:</dt>
<dd> <a href="http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/html-proposals/raw-file/default/longdesc1/longdesc.html">http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/html-proposals/raw-file/default/longdesc1/longdesc.html</a></dd>
<dt>Editors:</dt>
<dd><a href="mailto:chaals@yandex-team.ru">Charles (McCathie) Nevile</a>,
<a href="http://www.yandex.ru">Яндекс</a>—<a href="http://yandex.com">Yandex</a></dd>
</dl>
<p class="copyright"> <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Copyright">Copyright</a>
© 2012-2013 <a href="http://www.w3.org/"><abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr></a><sup>®</sup>
(<a href="http://www.csail.mit.edu/"><abbr title="Massachusetts Institute of Technology">MIT</abbr></a>,
<a href="http://www.ercim.eu/"><abbr title="European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics">ERCIM</abbr></a>,
<a href="http://www.keio.ac.jp/">Keio</a>, <a href="http://ev.buaa.edu.cn/">Beihang</a>),
All Rights Reserved. <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
<a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Legal_Disclaimer">liability</a>,
<a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#W3C_Trademarks">trademark</a>,
<a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-documents">document
use</a> and <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-software">software
licensing</a> rules apply. </p>
<hr> </div>
<section class="introductory" id="abstract">
<h2>Abstract</h2>
<p>This specification defines a <code>longdesc</code> attribute (based on
the <code>longdesc</code> attribute of HTML 4) to link descriptions to
images in HTML5 content. </p>
<p>Note that by allowing a hyperlink inside another one, this document
explicitly redefines the HTML concept of hyperlink in a limited set of
circumstances.</p>
</section>
<section class="introductory" id="sotd">
<h2>Status of This Document</h2>
<p> <em>This section describes the status of this document at the time of
its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list
of current <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be
found in the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/"><abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
technical reports index</a> at http://www.w3.org/TR/.</em> </p>
<p> This document is [proposed to the HTML and PF Working Groups by the
HTML Accessibility Task Force for publication as] a Last Call Working
Draft. If you wish to make comments regarding this document, please send
them to <a href="mailto:public-html-a11y@w3.org">public-html-a11y@w3.org</a>
(<a href="mailto:public-html-a11y-request@w3.org?subject=subscribe">subscribe</a>,
<a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/">archives</a>).
All
feedback is welcome. Bugs can also be filed directly into the <a href="https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/buglist.cgi?product=HTML%20WG&amp;component=HTML%20Image%20Description%20Extension">W3C
Bug tracker for this specification</a>. In order to be considered
under the W3C Last Call Process, bugs must be filed or email sent to the
mailing list within 60 days of the publication date [which will be given
explicitly in the published Last Call].</p>
<p>Following feedback on the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-html-longdesc-20130312/">First
Public Working Draft</a>, a number of <a href="https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/buglist.cgi?product=HTML%20WG&amp;component=HTML%20Image%20Description%20Extension">bugs</a>
were raised and resolved and a <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-html-longdesc-20130606/">Second
Public Working Draft</a> was published for review. Review of this
draft did not produce any new substantive issues, and a <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2013Jun/0072.html">Call
for Consensus</a> of the Task Force to request this be published as
the Last Call Working Draft <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2013Jul/0003.html">passed
without dissent</a>.</p>
<p>Significant changes between successive public drafts are tracked in the
<a href="#changes">Change History section</a>.</p>
<p>This document is intended to become a <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
Recommendation, either on its own or merged into an HTML
Recommendation. </p>
<p> Publication as a Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the <abbr
title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or
obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite
this document as other than work in progress. </p>
<p> This document was produced by a group operating under the <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/">5
February 2004 <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
Patent Policy</a>. <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
maintains a <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/01/pp-impl/40318/status"
rel="disclosure">public
list of any patent disclosures</a> made in connection with the
deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for
disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a
patent which the individual believes contains <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/#def-essential">Essential
Claim(s)</a> must disclose the information in accordance with <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/#sec-Disclosure">section
6</a> of the <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
Patent Policy. </p>
</section>
<section id="toc">
<h2 class="introductory">Table of Contents</h2>
<ul class="toc">
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#intro"><span class="secno">
</span>Introduction</a></li>
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#conformance"><span class="secno">1.
</span>Conformance</a>
<ul class="toc">
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#dependencies"><span class="secno">1.1
</span>Dependencies</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#UCnR"><span class="secno">2.
</span>Use Cases and Requirements</a></li>
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#longdesc"><span class="secno">3.
</span>The <code>longdesc</code> Attribute</a>
<ul class="toc">
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#extensions-to-the-element-interface"><span
class="secno">3.1
</span>Extensions to the <code>HTMLImageElement</code>
interface</a>
<ul class="toc">
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#attributes"><span
class="secno">3.1.1
</span>Attribute</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#acknowledgements"><span class="secno">A.
</span>Acknowledgements</a></li>
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#references"><span class="secno">B.
</span>References</a>
<ul class="toc">
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#normative-references"><span
class="secno">B.1
</span>Normative references</a></li>
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#informative-references"><span
class="secno">B.2
</span>Informative references</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="tocline"><a class="tocxref" href="#changes"><span class="secno">C.
</span>Change History</a></li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="intro" class="introductory">
<h1>Introduction</h1>
<p>HTML 4 provided a <code>longdesc</code> attribute for the <code>img</code>
element that enabled a machine-discoverable description of an image to
be linked to the image. This extension specification defines a <code>longdesc</code>
attribute to provide that functionality for HTML5.</p>
<pre class="example"><code class="language-markup">
<!-- The description is somewhere on the same page as the image -->
<img src="http://example.com/graph1" alt="(Drinks are getting sweeter)"
title="Figure One" longdesc="#graph1Explained">
<!-- The description is a page on its own -->
<img src="figure1" alt="figure 1" longdesc="http://example.com/desc1">
<!-- The description is one of several within an external page -->
<img src="ExampleImage" alt="example" longdesc="http://example.com/descs#item3">
<!-- The description is included in a data: URI -->
<img src="logo" alt="W3C" longdesc="data:text/html;charset=utf-8;,%3C!DOCTYPE%20html%3E
%3Chtml%3E%3Chead%3E%3Ctitle%3EDescription%20of%20the%20W3C%20Logo%3C/title%3E%3C/head%3E
%3Cbody%3E%3Cp%3EA%20blue%20capital%20letter%20%22W%22%20with%20kerning%20so%20it%20
touches%20a%20blue%203%2C%20followed%20by%20a%20black%20shadow%20of%20a%20white%20
capital%20letter%20C%20all%20on%20a%20white%20background%3C/body%3E%3C/html%3E"></code></pre>
</section>
<section id="conformance">
<h2><span class="secno">1. </span>Conformance</h2>
<p>As well as sections marked as non-normative, all authoring guidelines,
diagrams, examples, and notes in this specification are non-normative.
Everything else in this specification is normative. </p>
<p>The key words <em title="must" class="rfc2119">must</em>, <em title="should"
class="rfc2119">should</em>,
<em title="should not" class="rfc2119"></em><em title="recommended" class="rfc2119"></em>and
<em title="may" class="rfc2119">may</em><em title="optional" class="rfc2119"></em>
in this specification are to be interpreted as described in [<cite><a class="bibref"
href="#bib-RFC2119">RFC2119</a></cite>].</p>
<section id="dependencies">
<h3><span class="secno">1.1 </span>Dependencies and definitions</h3>
<p>The IDL fragments in this specification <em title="must" class="rfc2119">must</em>
be interpreted as required for conforming IDL fragments, as described
in the Web IDL specification. [<cite><a class="bibref" href="#bib-WEBIDL">WEBIDL</a></cite>]</p>
<p>The terms "<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/infrastructure.html#valid-url-potentially-surrounded-by-spaces">valid
non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces</a>", "<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/links.html#hyperlink">hyperlink"</a>,
and "<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/infrastructure.html#reflect">reflect</a>",
used in this specification are defined in [<cite><a class="bibref" href="#bib-HTML5">HTML5</a></cite>],
although this specification modifies the semantics of the term
"hyperlink" in allowing hyperlinks to be nested in certain specific
circumstances.</p>
<p>This document does not define the term "accessible" nor
accessibility, but uses them with the sense they have in [<a href="#bib-WCAG2">WCAG</a>]</p>
</section>
</section>
<section id="UCnR">
<h2><span class="secno">2. </span>Use Cases and Requirements</h2>
<p>There are many ways users can successfully interact with images even if
they cannot see, or see well. The <code>alt</code> attribute is
designed to ensure that for everyday work, a user has enough information
to replace an image, and often this is more helpful than a detailed
description of every image. The <code>longdesc</code> attribute is
designed to complement this functionality, to meet the following use
cases. </p>
<h3 id="use-cases">Use Cases</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Identifying a well-known image</dt>
<dd>Identifying an image is often important context for a discussion.
There are many well-known images which are widely reproduced and well
known. In some cases, such as "Mona Lisa", "Gerníka", Cubbin's "Lost",
Leunig's "ramming the shears", the most effective way to identify an
image is to use its title, creator, and similar information that would
be found in a catalog. But different people know images by different
titles, and some titles are not well known. Where the image itself
cannot be seen, a description can often be used to offer easier
recognition than the cataloging information, for example "Washington
crossing some river, standing heroically in the boat, while soldiers
do the hard work", or "the Da Vinci picture of the guy in a square and
a circle".</dd>
<dd><em>Requires</em>: Discoverability</dd>
<dd><em>Helped by</em>: Inline, Reuse</dd>
<dt>Describing a complex diagram</dt>
<dd>In many environments diagrams are used to explain a concept or
transmit information efficiently. For a user with a reduced ability to
see the image (poor contrast vision and other conditions are as
relevant here as a complete lack of vision), a description can enable
that user to understand the information being presented.</dd>
<dd><em>Requires</em>: Structured Markup, Inline, Reuse, Simple Return</dd>
<dt>Teaching Accessible Development</dt>
<dd>In many environments producing content that is accessible to users
regardless of disability is a legal and/or market requirement. </dd>
<dd><em>Requires</em>: Maintenance, Backwards compatibility</dd>
<dt>A self-describing artistic work</dt>
<dd>The visual design of many pages is an important part of the message
the author intends to convey to a fully-sighted user. Many authors
would like to convey as much of that design as possible to a user with
low or no vision. </dd>
<dd><em>Requires</em>: No visual encumbrance, Structured Markup</dd>
<dd><em>Helped by</em>: Reuse, Simple Return</dd>
<dt>Referring to an existing description</dt>
<dd>Many well-known images are already described by other sources. The
copyright on those sources may not be compatible with re-publishing
the description, but there is little value in making a new one. </dd>
<dd><em>Requires</em>: Reuse, Structured Markup, Simple Return, Optional
Consumption </dd>
<dd><em>Helped by</em>: No Visual Encumbrance</dd>
<dt>Linking to a description included within a page</dt>
<dd>If an image already has a description included within a page, making
the linkage explicit can provide further clarity for a user who is not
able to interpret the default layout. For example this happens when
users force a re-layout of the page elements because they have
magnified the content, or because they do not see the default visual
relationship between the element and its description.</dd>
<dd>This practice also enables description to be provided for all users.</dd>
<dd>By keeping the association clear the content maintainer can more
easily check that the description and link are actually correct.</dd>
<dd><em>Requires</em>: Inline, Simple Return, Structured Markup,
Optional Consumption </dd>
<dt>Localizing descriptions</dt>
<dd>When content is localized to multiple languages, it is important
that metadata intended for human consumption, such as image
descriptions, can be readily localized.</dd>
<dd><em>Helped by</em>: Structured Markup, Reuse, Maintenance.</dd>
</dl>
<h3 id="requirements">Requirements for an Image Description functionality</h3>
<dl>
<dt>No visual encumbrance</dt>
<dd>It <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be possible to provide a
description for an image without forcing the description to be
rendered on the page.</dd>
<dt>Structured Markup</dt>
<dd>It <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be possible to include rich markup
(e.g. HTML5) in the description of the image.</dd>
<dt>Inline</dt>
<dd>It <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be possible to associate a
description in the body of a page with an image in that page. </dd>
<dt>Reuse</dt>
<dd>It <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be possible to re-use a single
description for multiple occurrences of an image.</dd>
<dt>Maintenance</dt>
<dd>It <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be simple to maintain a library of
images and descriptions for dynamic assembly, or dis-assembly and
re-assembly, of content. </dd>
<dt>Discoverability </dt>
<dd class="rfc2119">It <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be simple for a
user agent to automatically discover a description provided for a
given image.</dd>
<dd>A user <em class="rfc2119">should</em> be able to determine that
there is a description available for a given image. </dd>
<dt>Optional consumption</dt>
<dd>A user <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be able to choose not to read
the long description of a given image.</dd>
<dt>Simple return</dt>
<dd>A user <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be able to return from the
description to the image. </dd>
<dt>Backwards Compatibility </dt>
<dd>It <em class="rfc2119">should</em> be possible to use existing
tools and techniques to associate an image with its description. </dd>
</dl>
</section>
<section id="longdesc">
<h2><span class="secno"></span>3. The <code>longdesc</code> attribute</h2>
<p>Note that this extension changes the definition of a hyperlink in HTML,
by allowing a <code>longdesc</code> attribute to occur inside a
hyperlink.</p>
<h3 id="implementation">3.0 Implementation</h3>
<h4 id="authors-and-conformance-checkers">3.0.1 Authors and Conformance
checkers</h4>
<section id="parsing">
<p class="rfc2119">Zero or one <code>longdesc</code> attributes <em class="rfc2119">may</em>
be added to any <code>img</code> element.</p>
<p>The <code>longdesc</code> attribute <em class="rfc2119">must</em>
contain a <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/infrastructure.html#valid-url-potentially-surrounded-by-spaces">valid
non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces</a>. The URL is a <a
href="http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/links.html#hyperlink">hyperlink</a>
to a description of the image that the parent <code>img</code>
element represents. </p>
<p>The linked description <em class="rfc2119">should</em> be in a
broadly accessible format.</p>
<div class="note">
<p><em>This section is not normative</em></p>
<p>Best practices for checking descriptions of images are beyond the
scope of this document, but there are many resources available.
For further guidance tool developers can consult e.g. [<a href="#bib-ATAGB3">ATAGB3</a>].
<span class="issue">ISSUE: This doesn't seem a great reference - is
there anything better? This is tracked in <a href="https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=21501">bug
21501</a> and its dependent bugs. Unless a proposal for
improvement is made and accepted this bug will simply be closed
after Last Call.</span></p>
<p>High quality implementation in authoring and content management
tools is likely to include checking for common errors, such as
including a description instead of a URL in the attribute, or
pointing to a resource that is an image or plain text, which are
often poor choices for a high-quality description.</p>
<p>This document does not define the term "accessible", nor
accessibility. For further guidance on making an accessible
document, authors can consult e.g. [<a href="#bib-WCAG2">WCAG</a>].</p>
</div>
<h4 id="authors">3.0.2 Authors</h4>
<p>Authors <em class="rfc2119">should</em> put descriptions within an
element which is the target of a fragment link (e.g. <code>longdesc="example.html#description"</code>)
if a description is only part of the target document. </p>
<div class="note">
<p><em>This section is not normative</em></p>
<p>Best practices for full descriptions of images are beyond the scope
of this document, but there are many resources available.</p>
</div>
<h4 id="user-agents">3.0.3 User Agents</h4>
<p>If the <code>longdesc</code> value is valid, User agents <em class="rfc2119">must</em>
make the link available to all users through the regular user
interface(s). </p>
<p>If the <code>longdesc</code> value is valid, User agents <em class="rfc2119">must</em>
expose the link to relevant APIs, especially accessibility-oriented
APIs. </p>
<p>User agents <em class="rfc2119">should</em> enable users to discover
when images in a page contain a long description.</p>
<div class="note">
<p><em>This section is not normative</em></p>
<p><code>longdesc</code> can be present on an image within a
hyperlink. This does not change the requirements on user agents,
which must still enable the hyperlink to be followed.</p>
<p>Complete documentation of best practices for implementation is
beyond the scope of this document. These notes are offered to help
minimize the impact of common mistakes.</p>
<p>A common mistake in the past has been to use a description, instead
of a URL that links to a description. Converting such values to
data: URLs is a repair strategy for user agents that can help users
to recover in cases where authors have made this mistake. </p>
<p>It is usually helpful when the behavior for finding, reading, and
returning from a long description to the image described is a
consistent experience.</p>
<p>Further information on making user agents accessible can be found
in [<a href="#bib-UAAG">UAAG</a>].</p>
</div>
</section>
<section id="extensions-to-the-element-interface">
<h3><span class="secno">3.1 </span>Extension to the <code><a title="element"
class="externalDFN"
data-spec="HTML5">HTMLImageElement</a></code>
interface</h3>
<pre class="idl"><span class="idlInterface" id="idl-def-Element">partial interface <span
class="idlInterfaceID">HTMLImageElement</span> {
<span class="idlAttribute"> attribute <span class="idlAttrType"><a>DOMString</a></span> <span
class="idlAttrName"><a
href="#widl-Element-longdesc">longdesc</a></span>;</span>
};</span></pre>
<section id="attributes">
<h4><span class="secno">3.1.1 </span>Attribute</h4>
<dl class="attributes">
<dt id="widl-Element-longdesc"><code>longdesc</code> of type <span
class="idlAttrType"><a>DOMString</a></span></dt>
<dd>
<p class="rfc2119">The <dfn id="dfn-dom-element-longdesc"><code>longdesc</code></dfn>
IDL attribute <em class="rfc2119">must</em> be a valid
non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces. It defines a
hyperlink to a detailed description of the image its parent <code><a
title="element"
class="externalDFN"
data-spec="DOM4">HTMLImageElement</a></code>
represents.</p>
</dd>
<dd>
<p>The <code>longdesc</code> IDL attribute <em class="rfc2119">must</em>
<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/infrastructure.html#reflect">reflect</a>
the HTML content attribute <code>longdesc</code>. </p>
</dd>
<dd>
<dl class="note">
<dt>
<p><em>This section is not normative</em></p>
<p><var>image</var>.<code title="dom-Element-innerHTML">longdesc</code>
[ = <var>value</var> ]</p>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>Returns a DOMString that represents the attribute's
contents. </p>
<p>Can be set, to replace the contents of the attribute with
the given string.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
<pre class="example"><code class="language-javascript">/*Make the first internal longdesc reference absolute*/
var baseURL = document.location.origin + document.location.pathname
var someImage = document.querySelector('img[longdesc^=#]');
someImage.longdesc = baseURL + someImage.longdesc;</code></pre>
<pre class="example"><code class="language-javascript">/*Open new windows for each longdesc found*/
var describedImages = document.querySelectorAll('img[longdesc]');
for (i in describedImages) {
if (i.longdesc)
window.open(i.longdesc);
}</code></pre>
<pre class="example"><code class="language-javascript">/*Tries to repair errors where the longdesc isn't a URI*/
var describedImages = document.querySelectorAll('img[longdesc]');
for (i in describedImages) {
if (i.longdesc && !(validURL(i.longdesc)) { //assumes some URL validating function
var theData = encodeURIComponent(i.longdesc);
i.longdesc = "data:text/plain;charset=";
i.longdesc += document.charset;
i.longdesc += theData;
}
}</code></pre>
</section>
</section>
<section class="appendix" id="acknowledgements">
<h2><span class="secno">A. </span>Acknowledgements</h2>
<p><em>This section is not normative</em></p>
<p>Thanks to the HTML Working Group of the late 1990s for the original
specification of longdesc, to those who have implemented it in various
kinds of software, and to many many people involved with the
development of HTML5 (including but not limited to those who discussed
"ISSUE-30" in the HTML Working Group, the Protocols and Formats
Working Group, the W3C Advisory Board, and around countless dinner
tables, coffee breaks, and elsewhere) for the ideas, discussions and
contributions that led to the initial draft of this specification.
With the exception of Laura Carlson, who did far more very valuable
work than it took me to produce this specification, I haven't named
them: the list might be larger than the content of the specification.</p>
<p>For specific comments and suggestions that led to improvements over
successive drafts of this specification, thanks to the W3C's HTML
Accessibility Task Force, the W3C Internationalization Working Group,
and to Jonathan Avila, Robin Berjon, James Craig, Paul Cotton, Steve
Faulkner, John Foliot, Geoff Freed, Peter Gruzca, Richard Ishida, Anne
van Kesteren, David MacDonald, Michelle McManus, Chris Mills, Jay
Munro, Devarshi Pant, Marta Pawlowska, Silvia Pfeiffer, Wendy Seltzer,
Leif Halvard Silli, Mathew Turvey, Klaas 'Z4us' V, and Boris Zbarsky.
The code examples are rendered with Lea Verou's prism tools. Any
errors are despite, not as a result of, their efforts.</p>
</section>
<section class="appendix" id="references">
<h2><span class="secno">B. </span>References</h2>
<section id="normative-references">
<h3><span class="secno">B.1 </span>Normative references</h3>
<dl class="bibliography">
<dt id="bib-HTML5">[HTML5]</dt>
<dd>Robin Berjon et. al., eds. <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/"><cite>HTML5.</cite></a>
W3C Working Draft. (Work in progress.) URL: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/">http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/</a>
</dd>
<dt id="bib-RFC2119">[RFC2119]</dt>
<dd>S. Bradner. <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt"><cite>Key
words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels.</cite></a>
March 1997. Internet RFC 2119. URL: <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt">http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt</a></dd>
<dt id="bib-WEBIDL">[WEBIDL]</dt>
<dd>Cameron McCormack. <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-WebIDL-20110927/"><cite>Web
IDL.</cite></a> 27 September 2011. W3C Working Draft. (Work in
progress.) URL: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-WebIDL-20110927/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-WebIDL-20110927/</a></dd>
</dl>
</section>
<section id="informative-references">
<h3><span class="secno">B.2 </span>Informative references</h3>
<dl class="bibliography">
<dt id="bib-ATAGB3">[ATAGB3]</dt>
<dd>Jutta Treviranus et. al., eds. <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/ATAG20-TECHS/#principle_b3"><cite>Implementing
ATAG 2.0</cite></a>, Principle B3 "Authors must be supported
in improving the accessibility of existing content" October 2011.
W3C Working Draft. URL: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/ATAG20-TECHS/#principle_b3">http://www.w3.org/TR/ATAG20-TECHS/#principle_b3</a></dd>
<dt id="bib-WCAG2">[WCAG]</dt>
<dd>Ben Caldwell et. al., eds. <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/"><cite>Web
Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0</cite></a>, December
2008. W3C Recommendation. URL: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/</a></dd>
<dt id="bib-UAAG">[UAAG]</dt>
<dd>Ian Jacobs et. al., eds. <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-UAAG10-20021217/"><cite>User
Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0</cite></a>, December 2002.
W3C Recommendation. URL: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-UAAG10-20021217/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-UAAG10-20021217/</a>.
A draft for a version 2.0 is available at <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/UAAG20/">http://www.w3.org/TR/UAAG20/</a></dd>
</dl>
</section>
<section class="appendix" id="changes">
<h2><span class="secno">C. </span>Change History</h2>
<p>(This section is not normative)</p>
<h3 id="change-second">Between this draft and the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-html-longdesc-20130606/">Second
Public Working Draft</a> </h3>
<p>Editorial changes include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Explicitly stating that <code>longdesc</code> makes a limited
change to the semantics of the term "hyperlink" in HTML</li>
<li>Editing of the non-normative guidance in various places.</li>
<li>Explicitly adding a reference to the software license to allow
people to re-use the code samples and IDL more easily with fewer
restrictions.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="change-first">Between the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-html-longdesc-20130606/">Second
Public Working Draft</a> and the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-html-longdesc-20130312/">First
Public Working Draft</a> <br>
</h3>
<p>Substantive changes include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Added a requirement that the destination of a <code>longdesc</code>
<em class="rfc2119">should</em> be "accessible".</li>
<li>The requirement to present content through the standard User
Interface was changed from <em class="rfc2119">should</em> to <em
class="rfc2119">must</em>.
</li>
<li>The requirement to present content through the standard User
Interface was narrowed to apply only to valid values of <code>longdesc</code>.</li>
<li>The requirement to present content through the Accessibility
APIs was changed from <em class="rfc2119">should</em> to <em class="rfc2119">must</em>.
</li>
<li>The requirement to present content through the Accessibility
APIs was narrowed to apply only to valid values of <code>longdesc</code>.</li>
<li>The IDL attribute <code>longdesc</code> was changed to <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/infrastructure.html#reflect">reflect</a>
the HTML content attribute <code>longdesc</code>.</li>
</ul>
<p>Editorial changes include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Clarifying that the document does not define "accessible",
except that it is used in the sense that it is used in [<a href="#bib-WCAG2">WCAG</a>].</li>
<li>Sectioning requirements according to whom they apply.</li>
<li>Removed the statement that User Agents <em title="may" class="rfc2119">may</em><em
title="optional"
class="rfc2119"></em>
present descriptions which are erroneously included in the content
instead of a link.</li>
<li>Added more examples</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
</section>
<script src="http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-html-longdesc-20130716/prism.js" data-default-language="markup"></script>
</body>
</html>
\ No newline at end of file