URI accessibility problems in `<ref-list>`

[estedeahora]

There are some recent changes in the commit referred to accessibility that generate warnings and errors in the <uri> tags inside the reference list (<ref-list>) that seem to me to go beyond Jats4r's recommendation.

On the one hand, the error: "Text that describes the linked object must be provided for each link either in the element content or in @xLink:title." (see

jats-schematrons/schematrons/1.0/accessibility-errors.sch

Line 58 in d1bea6b

Text that describes the linked object must be provided for each link either in the element content or in @xlink:title.

) does not make sense for reference list urls, which have a predefined context. These URLs are commonly used for bibliographies that do not have a DOI and it does not generate any accessibility improvement to include an @xlink:title.

On the other hand, the warning: "A URI is not descriptive link text. The text of ext-link should describe the linked object." (see

jats-schematrons/schematrons/1.0/accessibility-warnings.sch

Line 44 in d1bea6b

A URI is not descriptive link text. The text of ext-link should describe the linked object.

) is inconvenient. In the <uri> tags of a reference, no more than the url itself should be placed according to the jats tag scheme (see https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/publishing/tag-library/1.3/element/uri.html).

[estedeahora]

I add more elements on this point. Recommendation number 13 on accessibility says:

If @xlink:href is included on the element, an accessible description of the link should be provided in @xlink:title.

In this sense, the implementation in schematron is wrong, as it requires the @xlink:title attribute on all <uri>, even when the @xlink:href attribute is not present. Although this may seem like a superfluous specification, but if you look at the “sample” on how to use the <uri> tag (see), they do not use the @xlink:href attribute (nor do they use a descriptive field as content). This is because in most cases the <uri> and <self-uri> fields are used in the context of subtags within <front> and <back>, so the use of @xlink:href and @xlink:title is not necessary. For in-text references the correct form is <ext-link>, where these recommendations may make more sense for accessibility.