- From: Jim Jewett <jimjjewett@gmail.com>
- Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:41:28 -0400
- To: HTML WG Public List <public-html@w3.org>
- Cc: W3C WAI-XTECH <wai-xtech@w3.org>, Steven Faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com>
(1) Is it OK to omit the Short Text Alternative if a Long Text Alternative is provided? Yes, because it fills the need? No, because it might be "too long", and people won't want to listen through it? Since there are plausible arguments either way, not everyone will come to the same conclusion. It would be best to be explicit with your authoring advice and the reasoning behind it, as well as with the recommended effect on validity. (2) Warning on alt="" without role="presentation". Please be explicit on the reasoning. Is it (as a later email suggested) an attempt to promote the more general solution (aria)? If so, that needs to be in the document, so that people will more easily realize role="presentation" applies to -- and should be used with -- far more than just images. Is it an attempt to get around alt="" pollution from existing pages that use an empty alt when they shouldn't? If so, that should also be explicit. And, as others have said, it *might* work because role="presentation" is longer, but it probably will *not* work if there is an on-by-default warning message -- particularly one that just says "consider adding role='presentation' " without explaining why. (3) Auto-generated text: "(Note: It is important that this marker is not included in the alternative text string itself.)" Please be far more explicit in the reasoning. I would personally want such a marker in my own pages, so that I could later find the ones that still needed human verification. If that has to stay outside the attribute itself, then so be it -- but please say that explicitly. As a user, I would prefer to know when an alt text is auto-generated, because it gives me some hints about reliability. But I do realize that I may be in an extreme minority here; if there are usability studies saying that the extra time to convey that information is truly annoying, then please say so explicitly. Would it be acceptable for a GUI tool to add an extra attribute saying whether or not attribute values had been verified by a human? (4) Use case 2: Please make it explicit that the photo site MUST NOT add role="presentation"; or at least not without user confirmation. -jJ
Received on Tuesday, 18 August 2009 06:42:34 UTC