RE: [html4all] HTML5 Alternative Text, and Authoring Tools

Henri Sivonen wrote:
> Also, "educating"
> software developers to think differently (as seems to have
> successfully happened in the case of Dreamweaver) is an uphill battle
> compared to making a policy that concedes that this is how software
> developers think and (perhaps even uses that in the policy's advantage
> if possible).

Might I humbly suggest that one of the ways that "we" were successful in
this education process was that @alt is mandatory in the current "official"
specs of HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1?  Couple that with the Force of Law (Section
508 is bare-bones minimum but had a profound effect) and perhaps you can
begin to understand why, even though from a pure-play CS programming
perspective, the proposal that <img> be conformant without attendant textual
equivalency has zero traction in other quarters.  The whole "social
engineering" thread has already been hashed out too Henri, I know you were
there.

I guess one of the real problems is that ensuring universal access (and the
whole moral/legal issue surrounding that issue) transcends simple
engineering - these twains shall simply will never meet.

JF