Re: alt for icons

Adam,

    I haven't looked at something in lynx for a long time, but I thought I
remembered that lynx put the alt tag in brackets < > .... If this is no
longer (or never was) the case, then it would be more sensible to change
the browsers so that punctuation is added to set off the image text when it
is presented visually. That way it will always be there whether the page
author has heard of accessibility or not.

			Anne

At 05:08 PM 5/1/01 -0700, Adam Victor Reed wrote:
>I have an attention deficit, so I often use lynx to avoid distractions.
>Alt text appears in place of graphics, so it merges with other text if
>not set off with punctuation. It is NOT accessible if it appears as
>
>    1. Markup tools icon one Markup tools icon two Markup tools icon
>       three Markup Editing Tools: Tools that assist authors to produce
>       markup documents. These include text-based and WYSIWYG markup
>
>Instead of alt="Markup tools icon one", could we please have
>alt=" [Markup tools](icon one) " now, and just alt=" [Markup tools] "
>when used as an actual icon in the future? (Yes, I'm willing to write
>a techniques document on writing accessible alt text.)
>
>As for the icons themselves, I think literal images of traditional
>tools (icon 2 (pen on pad) for markup and content, icon 1 (camera)
> for multimedia creation, icon 3 (programmers terminal) for
>programming) are more accessible (especially for readers with
>cognitive deficits) than abstract metaphors (such as pen-on-film,
>something never seen in reality but shown in icon 2 for multimedia;
>or the abstract schematics in icon 1 for content and programming).
>
>-- 
>				Adam Reed
>				areed2@calstatela.edu
>				 
>Context matters. Seldom does *anything* have only one cause.
>
>
Anne Pemberton
apembert@erols.com

http://www.erols.com/stevepem
http://www.geocities.com/apembert45

Received on Wednesday, 2 May 2001 06:52:59 UTC