[thelist] browsing in Netscape 6.2 with images turned off

noah noah at tookish.net
Wed Feb 13 13:50:01 CST 2002


At 12:35 PM 13/02/2002, Trussell David N wrote:
> >> I've found that if I view a page in Netscape 6.2 with images
> >> off, not only
> >> do the images not appear, but neither do alt tags. This means
> >> where images
> >> are used for navigation there's no clue to where links might be. Does
> >> anybody know a way around this for designers?
>
>I wish I could remember where I read a dialogue with one of the main
>designers of Mozilla. He stated that he was no longer going to perpetuate
>the mis-use of the "ALT" tag. According to him (and the W3C) the "TITLE" tag
>is actually the correct one to use. I can't back this up but I *do* remember
>reading his response to questions about the "ALT" tag.  He maintains that
>just because everybody has been (mis)using the "ALT" tag for years doesn't
>make it right.

Having the ALT attribute appear as tool tips is wrong, but isn't the proper
purpose of ALT to have alternate text show up when the image doesn't? If
Mozilla is really taking this approach, it is eliminating the proper use of
ALT as well as the improper use. Doesn't this create a huge accessibility
problem?

Cheers,
Noah




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