[thelist] Good alt texts [was .gif texts]

[Adam Patrick]

> That leads me to a question that ocasionally pops up in mind on late-night
> coding sessions: What sort of alt-texts is one supposed to use for spacer
> images, bars and similar graphics to support text and audio browsers? "A
> spacer gif"? "A bar"?

Please do tell me if I'm way off base here:  

Given the purpose of the alt text is to let the non-graphical browsers
use the site also, I would have done the following:

- For spacer images and filler stuff, use alt="" so text browsers don't
even know they're there.

- For the picture of the statue (or others that serve *only* to spruce
up), use alt="", the text browser/reader doesn't necissarily need to
know about that either.

- For the "Welcome..." image, use alt="Welcome to the official internet
site of...." instead of "A heading that reads: Welcome to the
official..." because the text browser/reader doesn't really need to know
that that was an image, only what it said.  Same for navigation or other
related images with text or icons, etc...