RE: Two new sites

At 02:52 AM 25/10/98 -0500, David Norris wrote:
>> it be noted aurally that they are solely there for formatting purposes, or
>> should they be "silent" images?
>
>I would say silent.  That's my opinion, though.  Also, it seems to me that
>stating, in the ALT text, that <IMG> is an image is a bit redundant.

I don't think it's redundant as much as it's just wrong.  ALT text should
be used as an *alternative* to the image, completely replacing it.  The
user shouldn't need to know whether the ALT text is replacing an image or
whether it's just plain text.  Telling a non-visual user about images that
they can't see is an unnecessary reminder that the Web is, sadly, a visual
medium first and foremost.

>Many
>of the speech browsers, that I have used, will state that it is reading text
>from an image.  For example, your alt text might read like "Image, Image,
>This image is nifty."

This seems wrong of those speech browsers.  If I use

<H1><IMG SRC="wdglogo.gif" ALT="Welcome to the Web Design Group"></H1>

I don't want a browser saying "Image, Welcome to the Web Design Group" when
"Welcome to the Web Design Group" provides the information more succinctly
and without the distracting reminder of the Web's visual bias.

-- 
Liam Quinn

Received on Sunday, 25 October 1998 11:52:36 UTC