alt attribute - a very simple proposal

Hi Ian,

I have followed the discussion around this for a very long time. I'm  
not sure the solution is inside the specification. The [HTML 5 Working  
Draft, June 2008 ][1] is describing at length the [alt attribute][2].   
Many interesting use cases are described but I fear the list could go  
and go on.

1. I would just keep alt attribute requirements to the functional  
requirements, such as if images are not loaded the content of the alt  
attribute must be displayed.
2. The specific requirements on accessibility such as  the content of  
the alt attribute depending on the use cases should be entirely left  
to WCAG.

The specification would then be lighter, could have a pointer saying  
all the requirements for accessibility are defined in wcag 2.0.

For the class of products of
    * search engines, functional requirement: indexing the text content.
    * conformance checker: it is highly encouraged that conformance  
checker developers implement the  WCAG requirements on alt attribute.
    * authoring tools, functional requirement: provide a way to edit  
the alt attribute.




[1]: http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-html5-20080610/
[2]: http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-html5-20080610/embedded0.html#alt

-- 
Karl Dubost - W3C
http://www.w3.org/QA/
Be Strict To Be Cool

Received on Tuesday, 19 August 2008 07:46:29 UTC