10.6 Interactive media

User agents are expected to allow the user to control aspects of hyperlink activation and form submission, such as which browsing context is to be used for the subsequent navigation.

User agents are expected to allow users to discover the destination of hyperlinks and of forms before triggering their navigation.

User agents are expected to allow users to navigate browsing contexts to the resources indicated by the cite attributes on q, blockquote, ins, and del elements.

User agents are expected to surface hyperlinks created by link elements in their user interface..

<ZZZ> User agents are expected to allow users to access long text alternative resources indicated by the longdesc attribute on img.

For example, a user agent could provide an icon in its chrome to indicate when descriptions exist. The user could be notified by the icon changing from an inactive state greyed-out, lined-through iconto active state vibrant-colored, 'open-eye' iconand presenting a title. Upon activating the icon, a popup could appear containing a list of all descriptions available along with their thumbnail images.

Screenshot of activating a description icon in a browser's chrome Screenshot of popup list, containing'long description' menu items.

Then when the user selects a link in the popup, a new window or tab could open with a text description in it.

Where elements exposing long text alternative resources are also descendants of controls such as hyperlinks or buttons, user agents are expected to ensure users can access both the resource and activate the ancestor control.

For example, activating the control might be the primary function when the control has focus, while resources might be accessed via a context menu. Lightbox and logo images would fall into this situation. The linked image retains the expected behavior to take the user to the company homepage in response to user interaction while a discrete mechanism is used to retrieve the long description.

Screenshot of a context menu, displayed over an image, containing a 'long description' menu item. Screenshot of a long description page

User agents are expected to help users discover elements linking long text alternatives resources according to user choice.

For example, a user agent could allow users to navigate browsing contexts to the resource, or replace images with their long text alternatives according to user preference.

Screenshot of a preference panel with 'Display Image Descriptions' selected.

If a "Display Image Descriptions" preference is selected by a user, a user agent could then superimpose an icon or button directly on or beside the image itself whenever descriptions are available. Upon activating the icon or button the image could disclose the description in addition to the image or it could replace the image with the description.

Screenshot of an icon superimposed directly on an image. Screenshot of a longdesc text in an iframe.