Re: advice on alt text for image maps

2014-01-13 12:22, Patrick H. Lauke wrote:
> On 13/01/2014 11:04, Mallory van Achterberg wrote:
>> So... maybe a better example with less hem-and-haw is needed for this
>> page. Something that can tell an author what they should do, regarding
>> alt text, in a clickable image map.

The example is good if the alt attribute value is changed to "". It is 
an example where all the relevant information given in text before the 
image and in the alt attributes of <area> elements.

> e.g. an advent calendar (sorry, belated festive spirit here) with each 
> door's area simply labelled as "1", "2", etc. without knowing that the 
> overall image is actually an advent calendar, users would be left with 
> a rather cryptic set of numbered links to activate...
>
It might be used as another example, assuming that the calendar can be 
regarded as self-explanatory to a person who sees it and there is no 
textual explanation before the image.

Here the problem might be that an advent calendar probably has cognitive 
accessibility issues. I know what an advent calendar is when I see one, 
but it's not that obvious to all people. This is relevant because such 
issues may make it necessary to explain something about it, and then 
there is the "risk" that again, alt="" would be most adequate.

And even to a person who recognizes such calendars, it is not clear 
whether the calendar is for entertainment only (you click on a day, you 
see some picture revealed) or whether there is some action involved, 
e.g. you click on a day, you get an offer valid that day, typically with 
some picture, but possibly so that the offer is the real content. In the 
latter case, the content is a menu of 24 days (or so) and can be 
presented as a simple menu, with a legend before it, when images are not 
displayed. There would then be no point in telling people who do not see 
the image that they are missing a graphic, decorated presentation of the 
menu.

-- 
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

Received on Monday, 13 January 2014 10:56:55 UTC