[thelist] Accessibility and alt text - quality vs quantity

Russ russ at unrealisticexpectations.com
Tue Jan 27 15:21:37 CST 2004


You should also note that, at last check, some search engines will read
the ALT text and that can affect (if only minorly) the positioning of
your page(s).

> -----Original Message-----
> From: 
> thelist-bounces-russ=unrealisticexpectations.com at lists.evolt.o
> rg 
> [mailto:thelist-bounces-russ=unrealisticexpectations.com at lists
> .evolt.org] On Behalf Of Stephen Rider
> Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 3:12 PM
> To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
> Subject: Re: [thelist] Accessibility and alt text - quality 
> vs quantity
> 
> 
> Hi --
> 
> If a picture is irrelevant to the content of the site - in 
> other words, 
> purely decorative, use
> 
> alt=""
> 
> Describing a picture in detail just for the sake of using alt 
> attributes is unnecessary and in fact gets in the way of people using 
> text browsers.  If the picture is directly relevant to the content of 
> the site, on the other hand, by all means describe it.
> 
> <tip type"using alt and title attributes">
> Title attributes are very useful in tandem with alt attributes.  For 
> example, we've all seen how MS IE displays the alt text as a 
> "tool tip" 
> when you mouse over an image.  If you want to stop that from 
> happening, 
> use title="".  The title will override the alt text for purposes of 
> this popup.  If you want the "tool tip" to display something totally 
> different from the alt tag, it works for that as well.
> 
> In short, alt attributes were intended to be seen _instead of_ the 
> picture; the title attribute is meant to be seen _with_ the 
> picture. </tip>
> 
> Steve
> 
> On Tuesday, January 27, 2004, at 12:23  PM, Tony Crockford wrote:
> 
> > if I have an image that is inessential to the content, but merely
> > serves to add color to the page what is the best approach 
> to alt text?
> >
> > I curently have "picture illustrating the theme" (mainly 
> because it's
> > randomly selected) how do we feel about that?
> >
> > My interpretation is that its okay since it has no relevance to the
> > content but it's being argued that it should have a full text 
> > replacement for the picture (e.g. portrait of a lady in evening 
> > clothes, sitting by a window gazing out to sea)
> 
> -- 
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