[thelist] Is supressing the incorrect display of alt text in IE a good thing

Lee Kowalkowski lee.kowalkowski at lycos.com
Wed Jan 25 03:11:52 CST 2006


> From: "VOLKAN ÖZÇELÝK" <volkan.ozcelik at gmail.com>
>
> > Why don't you just add
> > empty title attributes instead of removing alt attributes?
> 
> Because I want to use the title attribute for what it is supposed to
> do: displaying a tooltip.
> And prevent alt attribute from doing what it is not supposed to do:
> displaying a tooltip :)

W3C doesn't say the title attribute must be used for tooltips, but it does say the alt attribute is for non-textual elements that fail to render properly.

You could suppose if an image fails to load its definitely failed to render properly, but a successful load doesn't guarantee proper rendition.  That's just an assumption.  

Why should ALT text only be accessible to minorites?  The times I've been thankful that I've been able to read ALT text via tooltips!  For example - when figuring out what a badly chosen/drawn icon is supposed to be/do/represent.  Given this example, I think MS made a good choice with this particular "abnormality". 

IE only uses the ALT attribute in the abscence of a TITLE attribute.  As you rightly point out, the title element should be used for controling the tooltip.  So if you want no tooltip, you should supply a blank title, not delete the ALT text.

- LK


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