Re: heuristic tests not in guidelines

Bruce,

Good points there!

Here's what I'm thinking now.

1. I agree that adding punctuation after ALT to pause the screen reader is
a good one.

2. The rule I proposed, that there must be a verb, only applied to links,
i.e. images inside an HREF, or an AREA of an image map.  But after thinking
about the other things you said, I'm abandoning that rule anyway in favor
of another one...

3. Here's the new rule.  This is under construction.  I'll have to review
my old English Grammar books to get it more precise but I hope the idea
comes through.  

  Alt text for links (i.e. images inside an HREF or AREA of image map) 
  and button images  must not consist solely of concrete nouns.  A concrete
noun is one that can be easily pictured. As for implementing 
  this... see below.


So, for example, (think about which of these is easily pictured in your mind)

"Search" is good, "Magnifying Glass" (meaning search) is bad. That's
because a "magnifying glass" is a concrete noun, something you can picture
in your mind. On the other hand, "Search" is easily pictured.  It's
abstract.  

"Bobby Approved" is OK.  "Bobby" gets warning.

"SAILOR" gets a warning. (Picture a sailor, typical cap, bell bottom
trousers)  "SAILOR Network" is OK.  "Sailor Logo" is OK.

"Lynx" gets a warning.  "Lynx inspected" OK. 

"DORS" gets warning.  "DORS Logo" OK

"Keyhole" gets a warning.  "Web Access symbol" is OK

"next page" is OK.  "Arrow pointing right" gets warning.

"Home" gets warning.  "Go Home" OK.  Note: this is special case of idiom
which could be made a special case exception.  Hopefully there aren't too
many exceptions or we'd be in trouble.

4. Here's another rule: 

  Any ALT text (links or not links) cannot consist solely of non-words.  Thus,

"MSDE" gets warning.   "MSDE Logo" is OK.

"topright.gif"  gets warning.  "Top Right" is OK (this is an example of ALT
text which is probably poor but which escapes the heuristic.


As for implmentation .

Words vs. non-words is just a spelling checker.

As for implementation of figuring out whether a noun is "concrete".
There's stuff on this in the literature.  Lists of words catagorized in
various ways.  Any psycholinguists out there?  Before we get into that
implementation detail tho, the question is:  is this a good rule?

If we can't automate it, it could still be used as a checklist on a more
human operated tool.

Also, as for looking at your web page... some examples from above are from
that page. Some were "warning" and some "OK" according to above analysis.
Thanks for the analysis fodder. Please say if you'd like more input on the
site.

Len


At 03:09 PM 10/30/98 -0500, you wrote:
>I think there's far too many examples of good ALT text that doesn't
>require a verb.  Should ALT text only be sentences?  I am in the habit
>of using punctuation with my ALT, just so the screen reader will pause. 
>I have not seen this convention discussed!  One of the ALT text no-no's
>is to use phrases that are too long.  Ideally, ALT text should never
>break over to the next line, but as the author, you have no control over
>this any time you use more than single word tags (of course the risk is
>geometrically proportional to the length of the phrase).
>
>Would you say the follow example ALT text should generate some kind of
>warning?
>
>Home
>Next Page
>XYX Company Logo
>Photograph of Nessie
>Bobby Approved!
>
>Sure, the first two could be "Go Home" and "Go to Next Page" (not too
>bad) but "This is a graphic of the XYZ Company Logo" and "This is a
>Photograph of Nessie"?  Who benefits from this?  What is gained?  Do you
>want verbs only when graphics are part of a HREF?  I have seen ALT text
>like "Click here for close up [of picture]".  Frequently links are
>non-obvious.  (Why should that "Bobby Approved" graphic neccessarily
>chain me to CAST and not merely be a static banner?)
>
>I would be most apreciative if you would critique the ALT text on my
>site:
>http://www.dors.state.md.us/
>
>Bruce
>
>
>Leonard R. Kasday wrote:
>> 
>> At 01:53 PM 10/29/98 -0500, you wrote:
>> >Now I think you are getting into the area of sophisticated AI speech
>> >understanding (as oppose to the current state of the art voice
>> >recognition).  I think that's too much for any Bobby like program.
>> 
>> How about just the simplest form of the heuristic, that gives a warning if
>> ALT text for a link doesn't contain a verb.  Questions are
>> 
>> how feasible?
>> 
>> how useful?
>> 
>> Len
>> -------
>> Leonard R. Kasday
>> Institute on Disabilities/UAP at Temple University, Philadelphia PA
>> email:     kasday@acm.org
>> telephone: (215} 204 2247
>
>
-------
Leonard R. Kasday
Institute on Disabilities/UAP at Temple University, Philadelphia PA
email:     kasday@acm.org
telephone: (215} 204 2247

Received on Friday, 30 October 1998 17:06:46 UTC