Use of ALT=" " (containing a space) contradicts F30

Name: Mark Rogers
Email: mark.rogers@powermapper.com
Affiliation: Powermapper Software Limited
Document: TD
Item Number: H67
Part of Item: Applicability
Comment Type: general comment
Summary of Issue: Use of ALT=" " (containing a space) contradicts F30
Comment (Including rationale for any proposed change):
H67 says 
Note: Although alt=" " is also valid, alt="" is recommended

F30 says
Examples of text that are not text alternatives include: placeholder text such as " "

These statements contradict each other.

Proposed Change:
In recent versions of JAWS and NVDA empty ALT="" works as expected (image is ignored) but ALT=" " (single space ALT) causes the URL of the image to be read out.

Remove note in H67 saying ALT=" " is also valid, since it appears to cause active harm.

Received on Monday, 19 November 2012 10:33:15 UTC