[thelist] alt and title

Geoff Sheridan web2k2 at premonition.co.uk
Wed Nov 6 10:52:01 CST 2002


I always format like so:
<title title="title">TITLE</title>
<h1 title="title">Title</h1>
</rubbishgag>

Seriously, I think the alt should describe a graphic (if it's worth
describing) and the title should describe the link. Some people like
to add titles to their divs. I HATE this - some browsers (eg Moz)
give you a pop-up 'tip' all over the div, which is annoying and
rarely what the author intended. If you have something interesting to
tell a screenreader about a div, put it in a h1 inside the div.

This is how I'd use the two:
<a href="donations.html" title="Please consider a donation to help
these puppies"><img src="puppy.jpg" alt="Picture of heartbreakingly
cute puppy" /></a>

HTH

Geoff


At 10:32 am -0600 6/11/02, Janet Green wrote:
>  >>>
>   Should the alt text and the title text be the same?
>>>>
>
>I don't think so. I use alt text to describe graphics and photos
>(example: alt=partnership logo or alt=photo of stadium) in case
>viewers have graphics turned off or in case they are using an
>assistance device that might read it to let them know what the
>visual elements are on the page. I format my page titles with a
>brief name that stays the same on all pages but then followed by a
>short description of that particular page to help search engines
>find it. ("Change Your View - Calendar of Events," "Change Your View
>- Staff list," etc.)
>
>Janet



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