RE: Views on some accessibility details

The ALT is displayed normally if the screen reader flag is not set.  The
only difference when the flag is set is that the HEIGHT and WIDTH
attributes are ignored.

This allows ALT that are contained within small images to display the
entire ALT text.  This forces a reformatting of page, usually not what
the author intended.

The screen reader flag is the only get to get IE to ignore the author
specified formatting of the page.  At present, there is no user
interface to set the screen reader flag, but it would be trivial to
write a applet that did.
Charles Oppermann
Program Manager, Active Accessibility, Microsoft Corporation
http://microsoft.com/enable/  mailto:chuckop@microsoft.com
"A computer on every desk and in every home, usable by everyone!"

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Gregg Vanderheiden [SMTP:po@trace.wisc.edu]
> Sent:	Wednesday, July 23, 1997 9:28 PM
> To:	'Charles (Chuck) Oppermann'; dd@w3.org; Robert Savellis
> Cc:	w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> Subject:	RE: Views on some accessibility details 
> 
> How about users who don't have screen readers but want the alt text??
> 
> 
> Can it be set to do this without a screen reader?  
> Is there a way to set the flag without a screen reader?
> 
> I thought I remembered something about this from an earlier
> conversation but I remember it as indefinite.  Current status?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Gregg
> 
> -- ------------------------------
> Gregg C. Vanderheiden Ph.D.
> Professor - Dept of Industrial Engineering
> Director - Trace R & D Center
> s-151 Waisman Center
> University of Wisconsin- Madison  53705
> gv@trace.wisc.edu,    WWW & FTP at  Trace.Wisc.Edu
> for a list of our Listserves send "index" to listproc@trace.wisc.edu
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Charles (Chuck) Oppermann [SMTP:chuckop@MICROSOFT.com]
> Sent:	Wednesday, July 23, 1997 12:10 AM
> To:	dd@w3.org; Robert Savellis
> Cc:	w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> Subject:	RE: Views on some accessibility details 
> 
> 	>> (2) Is it the case that the vast majority of web clients wrap
> ALT text? 
> 	>
> 	>I don't really know for sure. Netscape 3.0 doesn't.
> 
> Internet Explorer 3.0 will automatically expand a image box to include
> all the ALT text, wrapping it around if it would be wider than the
> screen width.  This is regardless of the HEIGHT=/WIDTH= parameters.
> It
> is done in response to the SPI_SCREENREADER flag that Windows
> supports.
> So, if a screen reader is present, we make sure all the ALT text is
> visible on the screen.
> 
> Charles Oppermann
> Program Manager, Active Accessibility, Microsoft Corporation
> http://microsoft.com/enable/  mailto:chuckop@microsoft.com
> "A computer on every desk and in every home, usable by everyone!"
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:	Daniel Dardailler [SMTP:danield@w3.org]
> > Sent:	Tuesday, July 22, 1997 5:18 AM
> > To:	Robert Savellis
> > Cc:	w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> > Subject:	Re: Views on some accessibility details 
> > 
> > 
> > > 
> > > I have had some feedback on the AUS Accessibility Standards
> > > for Web Design (guidelines for accessibility for Australian 
> > > Govt websites), in regards to fine-tuning some of the Standards.
> > > 
> > > However, I am not certain as to the accuracy of some of these 
> > > recommendations, therefore, I was hopeful for some expert
> feedback.
> > > 
> > > (1) Do the Height and Width attributes in image tags alter page
> load
> > time, 
> > > or do they simply load text first?
> > 
> > The issue is with formatting.
> > 
> > You have to load some text first, in order to get the IMG SRC that
> are
> > included. But since you don't want to relayout the text after each
> > images, it's better to know the size of the image in advance (so you
> > reserve the space and move forward in the text stream).
> > 
> > So yes, putting image size is valuable.
> > 
> > Note that this can also be done using CSS.
> >   <IMG SRC=foo.gif STYLE="width:3cm;height:4cm">
> > 
> > > (2) Is it the case that the vast majority of web clients wrap ALT
> > text? 
> > 
> > I don't really know for sure. Netscape 3.0 doesn't.
> >  
> > > (3) Is it fair to describe the latest version of Lynx as frames
> > capable?
> > 
> > Don't know.
> >  
> > > (4) Finally, does validation also serve the purpose of making a
> site
> > > accessible? 
> > 
> > What kind of validation ? just HTML ?

Received on Friday, 25 July 1997 16:44:27 UTC