- From: Jan Richards <jan.richards@utoronto.ca>
- Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:55:06 -0400
- To: Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>
- CC: Al Gilman <Alfred.S.Gilman@IEEE.org>, Jim Jewett <jimjjewett@gmail.com>, W3C WAI-XTECH <wai-xtech@w3.org>, public html for all <list@html4all.org>, HTML WG <public-html@w3.org>
Hi Ian, I like how your message cuts to the point. If I may, I would like to replace "is important" with "CONVEYS INFORMATION", as in: (1) Image DOES NOT CONVEY INFORMATION, alternative text is available. (alt="") (2) Image CONVEYS INFORMATION, alternative text is available. (alt="...") Now, in my opinion, a missing "alt" attribute actually represents: (3-REWORDED) Image MAY OR MAY NOT CONVEY INFORMATION and alternative text is not available. Now, I think there is a fourth state that I see use in representing: (4-NEW) A tool (CMS, etc.) knows that the image CONVEYS INFORMATION (e.g. someone uploaded it from their camera, so it's probably not a blank placeholder), but alternative text is not available. That said, I'm not sure how (4) should be represented (e.g., some have suggested something like alt="_none"). Cheers, Jan Ian Hickson wrote: > The problem is that there are _three_ states, not two: > > 1. Image is not important. (alt="") > 2. Image is important, alternative text is available. (alt="...") > 3. Image is important, alternative text is not available. > > Case 3 is the one we are discussing. Cases 1 and 2 are well understood and > nobody is suggesting changing them. > -- Jan Richards, M.Sc. User Interface Design Specialist Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC) Faculty of Information Studies University of Toronto Email: jan.richards@utoronto.ca Web: http://jan.atrc.utoronto.ca Phone: 416-946-7060 Fax: 416-971-2896
Received on Tuesday, 15 April 2008 20:54:26 UTC