- From: David Poehlman <poehlman@clark.net>
- Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 07:48:41 -0500 (EST)
- To: Brian Kelly <lisbk@ukoln.ac.uk>
- cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org, "B.K. DeLong" <bkdelong@naw.org>
I'd make two suggestion: 1> do not allow an altless image or other element which requires it: 2> explain with the error message in a short para how to construct a proper alt tag. It's time creation tool developpers got more involved in how products of their tools will represent them. And before anyone asks lest I leave something out, yes, check for all accessibility and do not allow construction till they are done. simple. notes along the way for corective messages. it can serve as a learning tool as well. when you hit a wrong key or click the mouse in appropriately in windows, it lets you know. This is quite effective. On Tue, 26 Jan 1999, Brian Kelly wrote: _----- Original Message ----- _From: B.K. DeLong <bkdelong@naw.org> _To: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org> _Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 1999 1:29 AM _Subject: Microsoft's response on the ALT attribute and how Frontpage deals _with it _ _ _>My comments interspersed. _> _>>From: A Microsoft Product Manager _>>To: "'bkdelong@naw.org'" <bkdelong@naw.org> _>>Subject: FW: ALT attributes default to filesize and filename _>> _>>There is no way for software to know that a magnifying glass is for _>>searching. There is a way in the image properties dialog box to put _>>whatever alt text you want in for an image. We have to pick a default. _The _>>benefit to having the file size over nothing is that users who have their _>>browsers set to not download images will be able to see how big (read: how _>>long it will take to download) each image on the page. _> _>My question was why would they care what the image size is if they have _>images turned off. Note she didn't address text-browsers or people using _>screen readers. _>-- _>B.K. DeLong 360 Huntington Ave. _ _I think you're being unfair in yopur response. An authoring tool has three _options for providing defaults ALT values - give a null string, give a _standard chunk of text "This is an image" or provide information _automatically derived from the image file "Size =100 Kb". Of these _alternatives, I think the latter is preferable. _ _What concrete suggestion would you make to vendors of authoring tools? _ _Thanks _ _Brian Kelly _------------------------------------------------------ _Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus _UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, England, BA2 7AY _Email: b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk URL: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ _Homepage: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ukoln/staff/b.kelly.html _Phone: 01225 323943 FAX: 01225 826838 _ _ _ -- Hands-On-Technolog(eye)s touching the internet voice: 1-(301) 949-7599 poehlman@clark.net ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/poehlman http://www.clark.net/pub/poehlman Dynamic solutions Inc. Best of service for your Small Business network Needs Http://www.dnsolutions.com
Received on Tuesday, 26 January 1999 07:48:48 UTC