Re: HTML Action Item 54 - ...draft text for HTML 5 spec to require producers/authors to include @alt on img elements.

On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 10:28 AM, Steven Faulkner
<faulkner.steve@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear HTML WG members,
>
> The first draft of our rewrite of major sections of 3.12.2 "The img
> element" in the HTML5 draft is now available:
>
> http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/misc/uc/
>

There are a couple use cases that have been discussed in depth on this
lists but are omitted in this proposal:

a) An image that is vital to content but its logical alternate text
would be redundant:

<figure>
<img src="1100670787_6a7c664aef.jpg" ??? >
<legend>My dog, Bubbles, digging in the
sand on the beach.</legend>
</figure>

Surely alt="" would be incorrect - that would imply that the image is
meaningless, just like an image that is "Purely Decorative"

b) An image that is vital to content (such as a gallery image) for
which the user simply did not provide text out of laziness:

<img src="1100670787_6a7c664aef.jpg" ??? >

If the user's tool generates alt="", that would imply that the image
is meaningless.  If the user's tool omits alt, the page's HTML is
invalid the semantics are left undefined.  The current HTML5 draft
defines semantics for this case and UAs can use.

The current HTML5 draft handle both of those use cases in a better
manner by just omitting the alt attribute and still covers all the
other use cases in this proposal.

-- 
Jon Barnett

Received on Wednesday, 21 May 2008 04:05:22 UTC