RE: test 59

Interesting point. 

 

It should at least be an OR  REQUIRMENT  - if the label is allowed to be
used OR the ALT text.  but I think maybe it is better to handle at user
agent end.

 

hmmmmmm

 

 
Gregg

 -- ------------------------------ 
Gregg C Vanderheiden Ph.D. 
Professor - Ind. Engr. & BioMed Engr.
Director - Trace R & D Center 
University of Wisconsin-Madison 

  _____  

From: w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org] On Behalf
Of Becky_Gibson@notesdev.ibm.com
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 3:17 PM
To: WAI WCAG List
Subject: re: test 59

 


<Chris wrote> 
>59 - INPUT element with type of "image" must have Alt text that describes
>the purpose of the control.
>http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/tests/test59.html 
</end Chris > 

I hate to advocate not putting alt text on images but I think this should be
an optional test.  The alt text should only be only necessary if the input
element does NOT have a label associated with it.   If the label is
available the alt text should not be necessary to describe the purpose of
the control - the label should do that.  I know we don't base our testing on
how particular user agents perform but I did test this with JAWS 5.1 (with
default installation settings).  It will read the label text followed by the
word "button" for an input element of type image.  It does not read the alt
text in this case (although I suspect I could change settings to make it
read the alt text as well). 
<label for="inputImg">Input Image Button</label><input type="image"
id="inputImg"  name="inputImgWithLabel" alt="picture of penguins"
src="..\images\on the move.jpg" /> 

Also, I am confused by the example in the test.  The default action of an
input type="image" is to submit a form.  The pass example does not have any
event handlers so the default action would be to submit. But, the label for
this button is "Name" - I don't think this makes sense? 

-becky
Becky Gibson
Web Accessibility Architect
                                                      
IBM Emerging Internet Technologies
5 Technology Park Drive
Westford, MA 01886
Voice: 978 399-6101; t/l 333-6101
Email:  <mailto:gibsonb@us.ibm.com> gibsonb@us.ibm.com