- From: Charles (Chuck) Oppermann <chuckop@MICROSOFT.com>
- Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 18:19:45 -0700
- To: w3c-wai-gl@w3.org
<< Section 3.2 requires alternative text for each applet and suggests using the ALT attribute. There is no point to the ALT attribute on APPLET; it should not be used since markup-rich alternate content can be provided as the content of the APPLET element. The example's ALT text would be better suited as a TITLE attribute value. As well, decorative applets and objects may not require alternative content, just as some IMG elements should use ALT="". >> I agree that ALT and the markup inside of APPLET need to be better defined. Also for OBJECT as well. I though that it was okay to say that the markup was sufficient, but is it? Wendy's testing of the <OBJECT> tag had dismal results for accessibility. What should a browser do when it recognizes the tag, but is not displaying the applet or object because of (a) user choice or (b) the operation failed? Should the browser display the ALT attribute or the markup in-between? More importantly, what should authors do? For example, O'Reilly's "HTML: The Definitive Guide" 2nd Edition has this to say about the matter: Page 400, Section 13.1.5.11 Supporting incompatible browsers Since some browsers may not support applets or the <applet> tag, sometimes you may need to tell readers what they are missing. You do this by including HTML body content between the <applet> and </applet> tags. ... Remember that this contained text is different from the text supplied by the alt attribute of the <applet> tag. The ALT text is displayed by browsers that support the <applet> tag but cannot execute or display the specified applet. The contained text is displayed by browsers that do not support the <applet> tag at all. In order to accommodate both classes of browsers, the considerate author supplies both for each <applet> tag. <applet code=clockclass alt="[ Clock applet not available ]"> <param name=style value=analog> If your browser were capable of handling applets, you'd see a nifty analog clock right here! </applet>
Received on Monday, 13 April 1998 21:21:13 UTC