[thelist] Good alt texts [was .gif texts]
aardvark
roselli at earthlink.net
Mon Jul 10 09:20:54 CDT 2000
> From: Adam Patrick <apatrick at oracular.com>
[snip]
>
> - For spacer images and filler stuff, use alt="" so text browsers
> don't even know they're there.
that's what i do...
> - For the picture of the statue (or others that serve *only* to spruce
> up), use alt="", the text browser/reader doesn't necissarily need to
> know about that either.
i do that every now and then, but since the 4.x browsers on win
use the 'alt' as a tool-tip, i sometimes add a little more value to the
image and stuff a caption of some sort in there... sometimes i just
leave it as a blank 'alt'...
> - For the "Welcome..." image, use alt="Welcome to the official
> internet site of...." instead of "A heading that reads: Welcome to the
> official..." because the text browser/reader doesn't really need to
> know that that was an image, only what it said. Same for navigation
> or other related images with text or icons, etc...
now that i completely agree with... after all, as long as the 'alt' is
there, the user with the screen reader doesn't give a rat's molar
whether or not the header (or some other text) is an image... if
anything, it slows the process down...
instead, a description like that is better used for something like, "A
table showing how many more people surf at 1,204x768 than
800x600" and let the caption and/or accompanying text describe
the data...
or for banner ads, "Don't click me."
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