[thelist] Re: <spacer>

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Fri May 31 11:10:08 CDT 2002


> From: "Ben Phillips" <ben at inchima.com>
[...]
> > Now how annoying would that be to listen to on every web page
> > you visited? Spacer gifs are invisible to the sighted for a
> > reason, putting ALT tags on one actually makes it VISIBLE to
> > a blind person.
>
> i think the best method is to use alt=" ", ie. put a blank space in
> for the alt text, so the text-reader will see a blank space rather
> than a filename or a wordy alt attribute.

i'd recommend sticking with alt="" over alt=" "...

partly because browsers like Lynx will still render the space, which
can make for some odd spacing here and there on the page,
making the text look funny...

partly because IE still shows alts as tooltips (in absence of a title),
which means lots of empty little yellow boxen when users hover
over an image...

partly because it actually offers no value, either... nobody benefits
from it, and it doesn't say anything...


--
Read the evolt.org case study
Usability: The Site Speaks for Itself
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904151035/evoltorg
ISBN: 1904151035



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