[whatwg] <details> for long description of image/ video etc

[Lachlan Hunt]

On 2011-04-02 10:30, John Foliot wrote:
> Interesting question. Referring to the spec, I think that you may
> have  in fact uncovered a bug in the text. The spec states:
>
>   "The user agent should allow the user to request that the details be
>    shown or hidden."
>
> The problem (or potential problem) here is that the behaviour is
> defined in visual terms

The Terminology section of the spec clearly states:

   "For simplicity, terms such as shown, displayed, and visible might
    sometimes be used when referring to the way a document is rendered
    to the user. These terms are not meant to imply a visual medium;
    they must be considered to apply to other media in equivalent ways."

> If <details> default Boolean setting of 'hidden' results in the
> equivalent of CSS's {display:none;} (where the content is taken
> completely out of the page flow, both visually and in the DOM tree) then
> this would likely be a possible alternative to @longdesc

Yes, it should be implemented equivalent to display:none.

> If however it is simply hidden visually, but is forced upon
> non-visual users (to listen to the description), then this 'forcing'
> to hear the content would be considered unacceptable.

No, the implementation should not do that.

-- 
Lachlan Hunt - Opera Software
http://lachy.id.au/
http://www.opera.com/