- From: Jason White <jasonw@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU>
- Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1999 10:51:04 +1100 (AEDT)
- To: WAI Markup Guidelines <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
The ALT attribute of the AREA element has been standard since HTML 3.2. Surely it is reasonable to expect screen reader users to upgrade to a combination which supports this feature. Daniel's mentioning of Lynx is timely: it is available for all major platforms, including DOS, Unix and Windows, and would work quite well even on a 386-class pc. I do not find the argument that some people can not upgrade their software (especially given the availability of a fresolutions that can be freely downloaded), convincing, and I tend to agree that some of the legacy issues are better addressed by expecting the client software to be updated, particularly where user agents that already support the required features are available and can be obtained without requiring an investment in new hardware. However, I think it is unreasonable to expect users to upgrade their operating system, web browser and access software in order to access a document, since this may involve very considerable expendature of money and effort. Thus, I think the issue ultimately turns upon the availability of low-cost, low-resource (in terms of hardware requirements) browsers such as Lynx.
Received on Wednesday, 6 January 1999 18:51:14 UTC