Re: ALT-attribute usage

to follow up on what jaap van lelieveld said:

> Make sure the ALT-attribut for HTML 4.0 and beyond will be used
> for an ALTernate description of an object both in old elements
> (like IMG) and new ones (like OBJECT).

I want to know what this means for the HTML specification.  In the
DTD we have comments as follows (clipped from most recent public
draft):

---------------------------------------------------------------------
                 Objects, Images, and Applets in HTML documents (p4 of 48)
14.1 Including an image: the IMG element

<!-- To avoid problems with text-only UAs you need to provide
     a description with ALT, and avoid server-side image maps -->
<!ELEMENT IMG - O EMPTY            --  Embedded image -->
<!ATTLIST IMG
  %attrs;                          -- %coreattrs, %i18n, %events --
  src         %URL;      #REQUIRED -- URL of image to embed --
  alt         CDATA      #REQUIRED -- short description --
  longdesc    %URL;      #IMPLIED  -- link to long description --
  align       %IAlign;   #IMPLIED  -- vertical or horizontal alignment --

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Is that what you want, or would it be better for the comments to say

"To avoid problems with non-visual UAs, provide a brief text
alternative for the image via ALT, and avoid server-side image
maps."

and 

  alt         CDATA      #REQUIRED -- text alternative to image --

respectively?

-- Al Gilman

Received on Tuesday, 21 October 1997 10:22:19 UTC