12.4 Text and non-text alternatives for object

This technique relates to the following sections of the guidelines:

Task:

Provide a text alternative inside the object element.

If object is used, provide a text alternative in the content of the element:

When to use this technique
Use this technique when your content uses the object tag to access an additional program or technology that is not natively supported by current user agents.  When the object element is used in web content, the author assumes that the majority of the audience has access to the additional technology and are using a graphical browser. 

In 2005 these and later versions of user agents support a text alternative inside the object element when the technology is not available within the user agent.  . (note - I did not verify these actual version numbers - this is for discussion purposes only!)
Firefox 1.0
IE 5.5
Mozilla 1.4
Netscape 6

In 2005 these versions of assistive technologies are known to support a text alternative inside the object element when the technology is not available in the user agent.  Other versions may also provide support but were not specifically tested. 
JAWS 6.0
Home Page Reader 3.04
WindowEyes 4.5sp3

More Information In 2005  alternative text inside the object element is generally available when the program or content specified in the object tag can not be loaded or accessed via the user agent.   Note that if the technology is loaded by the user agent but is not accessible to the user agent, the user will NOT by default provide the text alternative.  For example, a user using a current version of a screen reader in early 2005 will not hear the alternative text for a Macromedia Flash object if flash is turned on in the user agent but the flash object itself is not accessible. 


Example:

This example shows a text alternative for a Java applet using the object element.


 
<object classid="java:Press.class" width="500" height="500">
  As temperature increases, the molecules in the balloon...
</object>

Example:

This example takes advantage of the fact the object elements may be nested to provide for alternative representations of information.


 
<object classid="java:Press.class" width="500" height="500">
  <object data="Pressure.mpeg" type="video/mpeg">
    <object data="Pressure.gif" type="image/gif">
      As temperature increases, the molecules in the balloon...
    </object>
  </object>
</object>

Resources: