Re: Working Group Decision on ISSUE-31 / ISSUE-80 validation survey

On 04/21/2011 06:27 PM, Aryeh Gregor wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 5:51 PM, Leif Halvard Silli
> <xn--mlform-iua@xn--mlform-iua.no>  wrote:
>> So what and for whom would be better by omitting the @alt?
>
> That is not something I ever stated an opinion on.  I was providing
> factual evidence, not passing judgment on anything.  The alt text I
> cited is clearly "bogus" in the sense that it's added solely to evade
> validation errors, without any attempt to actually provide a useful
> text alternative to the image.  I make no claims beyond that.
>
> If you have questions about the evidence I provided, of a sort that
> would likely be germane should the issue be reopened, then it's
> possible this list is a correct place to ask.  Otherwise, I most
> likely will not respond further on this list, because (if I interpret
> the chairs correctly) such discussion is unwanted here at this point.

Since this conversation has continued, I will respond to Aryeh's final 
point as to why this discussion is marginally OK.  Quotes from the decision:

> However, it's clear that there are tools which do not follow ATAG in
> this respect, and no evidence was provided that this would change.

and

> This argument is based on what tools *should* do, but in practice
> often don't. Since no evidence was provided that common practice is
> changing, this was taken to be a weak objection.

Should this discussion result in a change to MediaWiki, that result 
could be included as a part of a package of new information.

That being said, I encourage anybody who wishes to pursue such to 
strongly consider Aryeh's suggestion[1] and open a bug report:

https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=MediaWiki

I'll also note that MediaWiki is not the only such tool.  Citing what 
other related tools do and providing first hand statements from the 
developers of the same would be useful.

- Sam Ruby

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2011Apr/0502.html

Received on Friday, 22 April 2011 20:09:03 UTC