- From: William Loughborough <love26@gorge.net>
- Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 07:24:10 -0700
- To: "w3c-wai-au@w3.org" <w3c-wai-au@w3.org>
I've been testing iWrite, a rather nice HTML editor disguised as an intranet authoring/maintenance tool. Here's a pertinent excerpted exchange: WL:: As to the *requirement* of HTML 4 that all <IMG> tags include an ALT= attribute I would urge you to take immediate steps to put in a prompt for the missing alt-text because this will keep us from having to stick a pin in your doll. iWrite:: "What about this: Include ALT text field in all insert image dialog boxes and alert user ifdialog box is closed with an empty field. Also, preset the value in the ALT text field to the image file name (I guess you probably don't like this idea, but presumably most of our users would be really annoyed with getting a warning unless they type something in)." WL:: "WL:: "alert user" is in fact a "warning" <g> and they will be no more "annoyed" than when being informed of any other syntax error - which this is! It's a bit like in HotDog when you don't modify the "type title here" before saving - your annoyance is with yourself ("Oh, I forgot to put in ALT= so that people using text browsers will know what's happening"). Presetting to file name is regularly debated in our Working Group and although "logo.gif" is usually sufficiently informative the real problem comes with "pic0198.jpg", etc. Our usual conclusion is that if the author isn't given the "opportunity" (come on, it's not really a "burden" <g>) to do the "right thing", she will accept the default text even if it's useless. Love the "include ALT text field insert image field in all dialog boxes...". Hate the "preset value...". Love.
Received on Monday, 25 May 1998 10:27:46 UTC