Re: Reflow (original question)

Hi Guy

Thank you for your response, it is helpful. It seems I was reading this bit incorrectly:

‘two-dimensional layout are images required for understanding’

I was reading it as:

‘images which require a two-dimensional layout for understanding’

I would always have assumed decorative images/images not required for understanding did not count as exceptions.

However, in the case where there are images which are not decorative and are required for understanding, I would say that some of these have a two dimensional or ‘spatial’ nature to the information within (images of tables or data visualisations which are read in a particular order) but some of these are more simple ‘pictures’ (such as photographs perhaps which you look at more as a whole).

So, I guess my question would be whether you are saying that only decorative images do not count as an exception, or if, in some cases, there are also non-decorative images which would not count as an exception (for example, where they are pictures which contain information but aren’t 2 dimensional in nature). I understand there are a lot of double negatives there so an example would be an image which contains information but perhaps is just a photo of two politicians shaking hands (which does have an alt*) – would this be an exception to reflow?

Basically, I understand reflow is about the text on the page and not so much the image itself. However, reflow is allowed to be impacted by images because if there is one exception on the page, horizontal scrolling then may remain for a whole page. So, I am trying to work out what is an exception and what is not. The context I ask this question in is a webpage which features a non-decorative picture as described above of a politician, and an author arguing that the page is now permitted to have two-dimensional scrolling because it contains a non-decorative picture. So, I just want to clarify to what extent that image should be allowed to impact the amount of reflow on the page.

*Note/ the ‘rule of thumb’ I would use for deciding whether I would class an image as decorative or non-decorative would be to ask myself whether it requires alt text for screen reader users. If I felt it should be hidden from a screen reader user, then I would consider it decorative in general because I would argue that if there is information that is useful for anyone then it should also be offered to everyone. (Please nobody read this and misunderstand it and reply saying ‘why are you confused about alts and reflow and screen reader users’ – I am not confused, I just think it can help to think of whether or not you would give an image an alt to help classify whether you consider it decorative).

Thanks,

Sarah