[thelist] ALT tags

Rachel Lam lists at ewe-wish.com
Fri Mar 9 09:49:54 CST 2001


>The RNIB recommend alt="*" for spacer/blank gifs


Funny, this is the first I've heard anybody suggest using alt="*" for _all_
unnecessary graphics. Everyone else I've run across says to use alt="" or
alt=" ", reserving alt="*" to represent bullets. I think it would be
incredibly annoying to have a screen reader say "asterisk" every time it
comes to a spacer gif or other unimportant image.

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a few references:

http://www.washington.edu/doit/Brochures/Technology/universal.design.html
Use a NULL value for unimportant graphics.
Some graphical elements may add no content to a page and can be bypassed
from viewing by using an ALT attribute with no text. By using just two
quotation marks with no content, you can reduce the amount of distracting
text when a page is viewed with graphics capabilities turned off or with a
text-based browser.
For example, the HTML for a divider bar could be:
       <IMG SRC="./purplebar.gif" ALIGN=MIDDLE ALT="">
Sighted visitors will see the divider bar, while those visiting via a text
browser will see/hear nothing.

http://www.cast.org/bobby/index.cfm?i=426
Do spacer and decorative images need alternative text?
Often page authoring tools will insert spacer and decorative images. These
should have a null alt="" to indicate they are not important. Use of a null
alt will not result in a 'tool tip' box in browsers when the mouse is over
the image, but will prevent speaking browsers from reading the file name of
the image which can be very tedious.

http://www.pantos.org/atw/35534.html
Discard decorations
In this context, "decoration" really refers to two things: truly decorative
images (which convey no content), and buttons, bullets, dividers, etc.
(which don't convey content, but do help to organize existing contents). For
images that convey no content, an empty ALT tag (that is, ALT="") will
effectively discard these decorations.

For buttons and bullets, a simple ALT="*" does the trick nicely. Similarly,
ALT="-------------" works well for separator bar graphics (though a simple
<HR> tag transmits much quicker and doesn't require ALT text).

http://www.microsoft.com/enable/dev/web/guidelines.htm
Use simple text for simple images (e.g. "*" for a bullet, numbers for a
numbered image, and a single space character or an empty string for
invisible images that are typically used for spacing).

http://www.webaim.org/Resources/samplemarkup.htm
SUPPLY EMPTY “ALT” TAGS FOR UNESSENTIAL IMAGES
<img src=“graphics/spacer.gif” alt="">
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Rachel Lam
Web Designer, University of Minnesota







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