Re: GL's interpretation of null alt-text

• From: Jason White <jasonw@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au>
• Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 16:35:21 +1100 (EST)
• To: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
• Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.4.10.9911111629010.7818-100000@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au>

My interpretation of the HTML specification is that it is ambiguous as to
whether user agents may ignore (or suppress) a single space as the value
of a CDATA attribute. This is why I have been arguing that it would be
best to avoid relying on a questionable aspect of HTML processing by
ensuring that at least one space appears in the HTML document immediately
before or after an IMG element, or, possibly, by using the  
character entity as the value of the ALT attribute.

Any discussion along these lines should be accompanied by a clear
statement to the effect that images should not be used to control spacing
between adjacent text in a document, as this violates the
content/presentation distinction mandated by guideline 3.

Received on Thursday, 11 November 1999 00:35:50 UTC