Re: there are markup options [was: Re: img/alt summary attempt]

On Wed, 16 Apr 2008, Leif Halvard Silli wrote:
> Ian Hickson 08-04-15 21.09:   ­  
> > On Tue, 15 Apr 2008, Al Gilman 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.
> 
> What do you exactly mean by "unavailable"?

I mean that the person generating the page (e.g. Flickr) has no idea what 
the image represents, only that it's important.


> I ask because In another message you said that:
>
> > Ian Hickson wrote:
> >   
> > > > The only actual solution suggestion I see there is alt="1", 
> > > > alt="2", etc, but it is unclear how that would improve 
> > > > accessibility.
> 
> So, if you see the solution alt=1, alt=2, does that mean that 
> alternative text **is** available? Or does it mean that it is 
> unavailable?

As I said in that message and in messages following it, alt="1" would be a 
bad choice for alternative text as it would hurt accessibility. The image 
doesn't represent "1". We don't know what it represents. That's the 
problem.

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