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Provide Information About Documents
WAI Definition (Checkpoint 11.3)
Provide information to enable users to receive documents according to their preferences.
Explanation
When linking to non HTML documents, provide users with information on the document file type, size, language and available alternative formats.
Rationale
Users who want to download files or view pages (such as documents or multimedia files) will want to select versions compatible with their systems and/or human language. Users are very reluctant to commit to downloading files if they can't tell whether they will be able to open or read them. Users with text-only browsers or screen readers may prefer to use pages that are optimized for certain user agents.
Technique
- Specify file type and size with different file types indicated in the links which activate the downloads
Providing users with details of the file type, size and language in the link title ensures that users are downloading the files which best suit their platform and language. - Provide available links to alternative presentations
Whenever alternatives are available, provide clear links to the alternatives (example: provide links to different media types or different language options for the same document, if possible). - Consider using profiles to record user preferences and configure the server to choose document preferences automatically
For example, a browser could indicate that it would like to see information in Arabic or English based on user's settings; provide users with the options to reset their settings.
Example
<!-- clearly specify the file type, size and/or language -->
<a href="event.mov">Download the video of the event (Quick Time format, 3MB, 12mn)</a>
or
<a href="event.mp3">Download the audio recording of the event (MP3 format, 112KB, 12mn)</a>
<p>Choose the language of the document:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="English_file.html">English (HTML format)</a></li>
<li><a lang="ar" href="Arabic_file.pdf">عربي (PDF 3MB)</a></li>
</ul>
Validation
Test
Look at the page and check if there are links to downloadable files.
Success Criteria
Links to downloadable files provide users with details about the file (format, size or length, language, etc.).