alt="" tested Re: DRAFT response Re[2]: Request for PFWG review of Omitting alt...

On Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:55:49 +0100, Patrick H. Lauke  
<redux@splintered.co.uk> wrote:

> Strange, as @alt="" (and the older @alt=" ", with a single space inside  
> those double quotes) has been the recommended alt for decorative images  
> for the last few years (even the UK's RNIB have been recommending it for  
> ages - can find a reference if you need it). From what I remember from  
> my testing days (currently haven't got access to screen readers), in  
> default settings JAWS and Dolphin's HAL indeed don't give any indication  
> that an image is present at all when the alt is empty or NULL.

Indeed, on Safari and Opera images with alt="" are ignored. Safari 2.0.4,  
Opera 9.5 beta build between 4544, both on Mac OS X.4.10 running VoiceOver.

Opera renders images that have an alt attribute with content, and makes  
that avilable to the screen reader. With alt-"" there is nothing rendered  
if there is no image. An image with no alt is rendered as "image" but  
nothing is passed to the screen reader. (This means that sometimes you  
cannot get to the title attribute value :(

Safari doesn't render anything if it doesn't render the image :(

I have attached the thing I used for playing around. It is not really a  
good test case yet, but feel free to clean it into something more useful,  
or even good.

cheers

Chaals

> Patrick
>
> David Poehlman wrote:
>> I've never seen one that does.  and in any case, if they do it is and  
>> should be configurable due to issues already raised and discussed.
>>  ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joshue O Connor"  
>> <joshue.oconnor@cfit.ie>
>> To: "Al Gilman" <Alfred.S.Gilman@IEEE.org>
>> Cc: <wai-xtech@w3.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2007 1:47 PM
>> Subject: Re: DRAFT response Re[2]: Request for PFWG WAI review of  
>> Omitting alt Attribute for Critical Content
>>
>>> <note
>>> class="inDraft">
>>> Somebody please confirm or deny this.  Do screen readers
>>> actually skip images with @alt=""?
>>> </note>
>>  They do.
>
>



-- 
Charles McCathieNevile  Opera Software, Standards Group
     je parle français -- hablo español -- jeg lærer norsk
http://my.opera.com/chaals              Try the Kestrel - Opera 9.5 alpha