RE: several messages relating to the alt="" attribute

Are there any usability studies or tests done by screen
reader software companies that could help resolve this
debate?

Too much of this discussion sounds more like opinions than 
conclusions from real-world studies of those who use the 
technology.

Working in a group that performs many kinds of psychometric
studies has taught me that the opinions and preferences of
groups of people are rarely as simple as "the visually
impaired would always want the alt text to say X."

regards,
Matt
--
Matt Bonner
Hewlett-Packard Company

-----Original Message-----
From: public-html-request@w3.org [mailto:public-html-request@w3.org] On
Behalf Of Ian Hickson
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 1:01 PM
To: Leif Halvard Silli
Cc: Dr. Olaf Hoffmann; public-html@w3.org
Subject: Re: several messages relating to the alt="" attribute


On Fri, 11 Apr 2008, Leif Halvard Silli wrote:
>
>    <img alt='card 14' src="r14.jpg'>
>
> should be just fine. It is short, and it would not miss any points. It
> should be more accessible than the spec is now.

I disagree that the AT reading the spec's example as "Card 1. A black
outline of the first of the ten cards in the Rorschach inkblot test."
would be better than it reading it as "(AT-specific cue that an unknown
image is present). A black outline of the first of the ten cards in the
Rorschach inkblot test."

"Card 1" is not an alternative for Rorschach1.jpg, it's a title.

   <figure>
    <img title="Card 1" src=r1.jpg>
    <legend>A black outline of the first of the ten cards
    in the Rorschach inkblot test.</legend>
   </figure>

...would be ok, the AT could render that as (where /.../ indicates an
AT-specific voice cue): "/Image with title: Card 1./ A black outline of
the first of the ten cards in the Rorschach inkblot test."

The point being that the alt="" attributes indicates that the existence of
the image doesn't need to be conveyed to the user at all, but here we do
want to convey the presence of the image.

--
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'