GL's interpretation of null alt-text

Hello,

A while back ER requested that GL discuss "null alt-text."  It was 
discussed  t our 28 October telecon [1].

Our conclusions from that call are as follows:

1.  authors  shouldn't use " " since spaces are ignored by user agents.
2. &nbsp is just another form of white space and therefore should be 
avoided because it should not be used for formatting. it should only used 
to keep pieces of text together (e.g. in WCAG we keep the word "priority" 
and the level together).
3. <A href="foo.html"> <img alt="" src=...> prices </A> is o.k.
4. <A href="foo.html"> <img alt="prices" ...><img alt="" src=...> </A> is 
not o.k. an abuse of the image element.

Therefore, if the rest of the members of this working group agrees with 
these conclusions we will send them on to ER as well as incorporate them 
into the Techniques document.

--wendy

[1] http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/meetings/19991028.html

Received on Wednesday, 10 November 1999 15:20:23 UTC