

RE: use of the "d" link for images

From: Jamie Mackay <Jamie.Mackay@cultureandheritage.govt.nz>
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 10:11:03 +1200
Message-ID: <21E9A6F96222D311882700508B2C47EE390BA7@MCA-NT1>
To: "'David Poehlman'" <poehlman1@home.com>, Jeff Isom <jeff@cpd2.usu.edu>, w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Here is an example of what (I think) David is talking about:

I tend to use both D links and Longdesc tags (though this provokes a bug in
Bobby which complains about repeating the link phrase.) Hopefully one day I
will be able to get rid of all the D tags, but in the meantime I use link
titles to describe them. I don't think just "description of previous image"
or something is adequate though is it? - surely the description should refer
to the specific image if the link is going to be read out with a bunch of

Jamie Mackay

The second question is what form it should take.  I preffer telling
people what is being described such as: "description of web access
another approach is to write a separate page and provide a link such as:
"descriptins of images on this page".  on the separate page, you can
write the descriptions and title them accordingly.  you can even do this
any way and use d links to call up the appropriate portions of the page
but this does not always work.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Isom" <jeff@cpd2.usu.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2001 4:55 PM
Subject: use of the "d" link for images

I understand the purpose of the "d" link is to provide the user with a
description of a complex graphic.  Should all images have "d" links or
those that are complex?  In other words, although a description of an
may not be essential to the content of the site, would it be a good idea
give the user and opportunity to experience the graphic in a more

In addition, it seems that using the "d" tag could be confusing to the
if there were a number of complex graphics on the page.  As the user
throught the links they would hear "link d" . . . "link d" . . . "link
They would have to work to figure out what image the link refers to.  I
this is convention for describing images, but is it the best approach?


Jeffrey Isom
Instructional Designer
Web Accessibility in Mind (http://www.webaim.org)
Center for Persons with Disabilities
Utah State University
Logan, Utah   84322-6800
(435) 797-7582
Received on Wednesday, 25 April 2001 18:13:56 GMT
