ALT=

Len's piece at: http://www.att.com/style/alttext.html is a winner.  In
addition to incorporating lots of examples it contains:

"As already noted elsewhere (e.g. the Web Page Creation Guide) all image
tags absolutely must use the ALT attribute to describe images for users
who cannot or choose not to receive images. This requirement is
non-negotiable and applies to every single image in your site,
regardless of how insignificant it may appear to be."

As I read the guidelines and checklists, etc. I am always struck with
how many of the items are more a matter of convenience and have a sort
of "interim" necessity because the possibility of making agents that can
deal with them makes them hard to justify spending time on.

The "ALT= imperative" is so clearly the #1 issue that we should make it
a point to put a reference to this particular thing in our pointers to
designers about what they can readily do - even without having good
tools; even without knowing HTML even if the browsers don't support CSS
and even if the other guidelines are still "works in progress."

If we can get significant compliance on ALT= we will have been of help.
Other stuff will follow.  Please don't accuse me of wanting to ignore
all the important elements of accessibility, it's just that there is a
strong possibility that we can actually get started on this without
having to wait for completion of everything else.
-- 
Love.
            ACCESSIBILITY IS RIGHT - NOT PRIVILEGE
http://dicomp.pair.com

Received on Thursday, 28 May 1998 18:29:52 UTC