Re: Need some help

One modification to HTTP which would benefit people with disabilities has
been suggested by Al Gilman and is documented on his web site:
http://www.access.digex.net/%7easgilman/web-access/perc_rfc.html.
Essentially, the proposal is that HTTP should be changed to allow the
title of an HTML document to be requested and retrieved independently of
the document itself. Thus, if the content of an anchor element is
an image, the client is text based, and no ALT attribute is provided, then
the title of the HTML document to which the link refers could be obtained
without having to transfer the entire file across the network. Although I
think this idea has merit, in that it offers a practical solution in cases
where authors have neglected to include alt attributes in img elements
which serve as links to other HTML documents, I would prefer that the alt
attribute itself be required and that authoring software adopt the
practice of prompting for a textual description whenever a reference to an
image is made.. I have sometimes wondered whether, by making the kind of
modification to HTTP that Al has suggested, one would be inadvertently
sending a signal to content providers that they do not need to be diligent
in ensuring that the alt attribute is used, since the HTTP change will
serve as a fall-back mechanism that text-based clients can rely upon in
any case.

Another issue which is also relevant here, is the practice of writing text
only pages, in circumstances in which the default (graphical) presentation
can not be readily modified so as to make it accessible. Firstly, I would
question whether, given the HTML 4.0 proposals relating to tables and
forms, there will be much need for "text only" alternative pages in the
future, particularly once the "screen reader" access paradigm has been
supplanted by the widespread availability of braille and audio clients
that have direct access to HTML and CSS content. However, if it is
considered that there will continue to be a substantial need for "text
only" pages, then it might be reasonable for a client to be able to
indicate to the server via HTTP that text only pages are to be provided,
if available.

Received on Wednesday, 9 July 1997 06:12:23 UTC