Unrepentant

I originally sent these out as a series of tweets on twitter. It was late at night on the west coast, so likely most were asleep when I pumped them out. I hope to expand on these further, but for now, my bullet points:

• Elements are better than attributes; for semantics, javascript, css
• If something needs to be referenced you should normally make it an element, with an id attribute. (aria-describedby?)
• If something represents a separate entity, make it an element: you might want to add attributes later
• Because <details> is an element, it can be easily styled and scripted; ditto for <button>
• Complex tables need explaining to more than just blind: low vision users with screen magnifiers, dyslexics and other cognitive needs users, etc.
• <details> could take <ul>’s – cognitive studies suggest lists are easier ways of collecting data than reading paragraphs
• The <details><button></details> pattern can likely be reused for other accessibility related needs: I’m thinking as a replacement to longdesc as well: <img><details><button></details></img>
• The reality: both summary & longdesc, while great ideas, didn’t gain widespread take-up & have been seriously abused
• Both summary & longdesc will always be honored by user-agents that support HTML4 – they’re not going to disappear overnight.