remembering ALTs that go with [SRC] URLs

I want to get back to one point that came up in the phone call and I don't
know if it was a consensus or not.

Both the A-prompt and ALTifier have been assuming that it is enough to
remember one ALT to go with an image SRC URL.  And I said that this
is a problem and Daniel explained a bit.

Page-dependent "role" of the image apart, there are a variety of reasons
why the tools must have a logical model that allows for different
elements to use different ALTs with the same SRC value.

Reason 1: language variation and localisation

Reason 2: The basic principle is that the author needs to be in charge.
Any time we succeed in getting an author to think through what they
put in the ALT attribute, we do not want the tools interfering with
what the author(s) of different pages decide.  There are lots of
reasonable choices.  Surveying the site or the whole, World-Wide
Web for what someone else has used is appropriate to generate a 
suggestion if the current author doesn't have a clue.  Not to override
what the author wants to say.

The practical upshot is that I believe you need a model of how ALT
strings are remembered that is a little richer.  Just SRC and ALT
values is not enough.  I actually suggest that you use an XML like
format with start and stop tags and named fields for insurance.  Then
it is easy to extend the schema without breaking old code.

<img-alt-use>
<img-src>[URI]</img-src>
<alt-text>[text]</alt-text>
<as-used-in>[URI]</as-used-in>
</img-alt-use>

Al

Received on Friday, 11 December 1998 20:32:50 UTC