[thelist] accessible imagemaps

[Matthias Willerich]

Hello,
What do you think about client-side imagemaps and accessibility? I've been
avoiding imagemaps for years, probably because back when I read the WAI
guidelines, I actually didn't read the closely enough. Client-side imagemaps
(with the appropriate alt- and/or title-attribute) seem ok to use, but I
don't want to simply follow the letter blindly, but know if I'm missing an
aspect. I now have to build a template where I won't get around a big image
with clickable areas. Should I use an imagemap, or go down a crazy route of
absolutely positioned transparent pixels on top of a background image,
creating "hotspots"? I doubt this is any better, but stole the idea from
flash development anyway.

Any insight appreciated,
Matthias