RE: Image alt in WAI process intro

Hello All,
I think over all I would say use null text in agreement with Andrew.
While I think low vision and persons with vision in the past do like to
identify what's there, in an over all sense extra audible detail is not
necessary for the content.
Doyle

-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-eo-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-eo-request@w3.org] On
Behalf Of Sylvie Duchateau
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 1:23 AM
To: shawn@w3.org
Cc: w3c-wai-eo@w3.org
Subject: RE: Image alt in WAI process intro


hello Shawn, Andrew and all,
I agree with Andrew's comment below. 
The alt contents are not helpful for someone who cannot see the images
because it cannot help illustrate the visual effect of these images. 
Empty alt tags would be a first solution. But it does not give
equivalent information as the information provided by the images. 
There should be a short text equivalent of each image that should not
explain what the images look like, but this text equivalent should
explain which information they try to provide. 

For the moment, I have no idea of the information that should be
contained in the alt attribute, so I think that empty alt would be
appropriate. 
The process is here provided by the title of each list item and by the
numbering of each item. 
If you take Andrew's example of explaining on the phone the steps
described in hte document, you would not try to describe each image but
you would say : first step is this, second step is that and so on. 

Best
Sylvie

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 19/09/2006 at 12:38 Andrew Arch wrote:

>William wrote:
>> Because we are the WAI, I think it's OK to use the descriptive text.
>
>We get two different responses from Vision Australia clients. Those who

>have never had sight, want a fast reading page with minimal "noise", 
>and do not want alt text on images that are not 100% informative. Some 
>of the clients who have had sight, prefer to know what images are on 
>the page regardless.
>
>On this basis, as most sights are not for entertainment, we tend to 
>lean towards recommending minimal alt text, and only where it adds
value.
>Think about it as though you were reading the page to someone over the 
>telephone - do they need to know about the images? If yes, what do they

>need to know?
>
>My two-bobs worth.  Andrew
>
>______________________
>Dr Andrew Arch
>Manager Online Accessibility Consulting Vision Australia - Accessible 
>Information Solutions Ph. +61 (0)3 9864 9282; Mob: 0438 755 565 
>http://www.visionaustralia.org.au/ais/
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: w3c-wai-eo-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-eo-request@w3.org] On

>> Behalf Of William Loughborough
>> Sent: Tuesday, 19 September 2006 9:39 AM
>> To: Shawn Henry
>> Cc: EOWG (E-mail)
>> Subject: Re: Image alt in WAI process intro
>>
>>
>> Shawn Henry wrote:
>>
>> > What are your thoughts on providing descriptive alt text such as is

>> > there now, or null alt text?
>>
>> Because we are the WAI, I think it's OK to use the descriptive text. 
>> I also think the null solution would be acceptable, but we should do
>more
>> than that for illustrative purposes.
>>
>> We might even include a note that although we're showing what we say 
>> we're showing, it's only marginally informative and could be "".
>>
>> Love.
>
>
>
>
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Received on Tuesday, 19 September 2006 17:05:44 UTC