- From: Al Gilman <Alfred.S.Gilman@IEEE.org>
- Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 11:01:46 -0400
- To: Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>
- Cc: Steven Faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com>, HTML WG <public-html@w3.org>, wai-xtech@w3.org
On 12 Apr 2008, at 4:00 PM, Ian Hickson wrote: > > On Sat, 12 Apr 2008, Steven Faulkner wrote: >> >> The part in the HTML 5 spec (see below). about it being OK to >> leave the >> alt off if you are sending an email to someone who is known to view >> images, is unecessary and just a variation on the "disabled people >> don't >> use my web site, so I don't need to make it accessible" argument. It >> adds nothing of use to the spec apart from providing another dubious >> reason to omit the alt attribute. >> >> I propose it is removed. > > So say that my partner e-mails me personally an e-mail that contains a > diagram of our new apartment's floor layout. > > What possible benefit is there to making that e-mail non-conforming? > (There's no way that my partner will describe the image textually, I > assure you.) Occam's razor. There's no benefit to putting in a special rule to make it conforming. In the PFWG charter, it's called 'small footprint' http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/charter200612#Scope In the HTML Design Principles it's called "Solve Real Problems." http://www.w3.org/html/wg/html5/principles/#utility Also, under "Priority of Constituencies" the exception is not justified. There is no user problem for you if the page is non- conforming. That's the precedent set by how the browsers process HTML now. So don't fix a non-problem. Making such a special rule is "proposing changes for theoretical reasons alone." The HTML *specification* should be about the markup. This rule digresses too far into business-process issues. There is no good reason to clutter the specification with such off-topic assertions. Al > -- > Ian Hickson U+1047E ) > \._.,--....,'``. fL > http://ln.hixie.ch/ U+263A /, _.. \ _ > \ ;`._ ,. > Things that are impossible just take longer. `._.-(,_..'-- > (,_..'`-.;.' >
Received on Sunday, 13 April 2008 15:02:34 UTC