Re: Guideline 1 in The evaluation techniques document

another thought on the issue of having and image link adjacent to a text
link with the same url.  What about the case where the meaning requires
both elements?  For example, a icon that means "mail to" followed by the
words "Larry LarRue".  Here we can't use ALT="" or " " because there's a
function to the image.

Here's the code with separate links:

<A href="foo.html" > <IMG ALT="Mail to:" src="mbox.gif"> </A>
<A href="foo.html"> Larry LaRue </A>

Its clearly better to put img and text within the same link:

<A href="foo.html">
     <IMG ALT="Mail to:" src="mbox.gif"> Larry LaRue 
</A>

I'll admit that this can get tricky if people are using tables to format
their pages. There are ways to do it for some common cases, e.g. text below
the image, in which case the whole link can fit inside a single table cell.
 There may be more complicated cases where you can't manage it.  But at
least we should recommend it where it is possible.  And this will go away
when style sheets become widely used.

If we accept this as a general recommendation, then ALT="" or ALT=" "
becomes a particular case.  Why make an exception and get into assumptions
about the differences between "" and " " etc? 

Len

-------
Leonard R. Kasday, Ph.D.
Universal Design Engineer, Institute on Disabilities/UAP, and
Adjunct Professor, Electrical Engineering
Temple University

Ritter Hall Annex, Room 423, Philadelphia, PA 19122
kasday@acm.org        
(215} 204-2247 (voice)
(800) 750-7428 (TTY)

Received on Thursday, 24 June 1999 11:40:36 UTC