guidance on using ALT (was Re: What now ALT?) from Gregory J. Rosmaita on 2007-10-04 (public-html@w3.org from October 2007)

From: Gregory J. Rosmaita <oedipus@hicom.net>
Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2007 13:52:02 -0400
To: "Philip Taylor (Webmaster)" <P.Taylor@Rhul.Ac.Uk>, Rimantas Liubertas <rimantas@gmail.com>
Cc: HTMLWG <public-html@w3.org>, w3c-wai-ig@w3.org, advocate group <list@html4all.org>
Message-Id: <20071004174037.M93016@hicom.net>

philip taylor wrote, quote:
> [...] this is no reason for not 
> requiring use of the attribute, but what is therefore required 
> in addition is a campaign to make authors aware of the correct 
> use thereof.
unquote

there ALREADY IS a W3C technical recommendation covering use of
alt and its nuances -- it's called the Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines (WCAG), and can be found -- like ALL technical 
recommendations, in the W3C's TR space:

http://www.w3.org/TR/wcag10

and its associated "Techniques" document:

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-TECHS/

work on version 2.0 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
continues -- the latest public draft of which can be located at:

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/

the issue of "appropriate" long and short descriptors is also 
address in another W3C technical recommendation, the Authoring
Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG)

http://www.w3.org/TR/atag10
http://www.w3.org/TR/atag10-techs

and work on ATAG 2.0 continues -- the latest public drafts are
located at:

http://www.w3.org/TR/ATAG20
http://www.w3.org/TR/ATAG20-TECHS/

and more information about both documents -- which form HTML5 
dependencies, can be found at the relevant groups' W3C web apace:

http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU
http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL

again, as technical recommendations, there are mutual dependencies 
between these documents and all other W3C technical recommendations

having said that, the more the information contained in WCAG and
ATAG is integrated into the HTML5 draft, the better off everyone
will be, and the number of red herrings in the HTML sea will drop
off precipitously

gregory.
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                    -- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
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    Gregory J. Rosmaita: oedipus@hicom.net
         Camera Obscura: http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/
Oedipus' Online Complex: http://my.opera.com/oedipus
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Received on Thursday, 4 October 2007 17:53:02 UTC