RE: use of alt attributes in decorative images

> Okay, I am using the latest version of JFW on a Windows 2000 box.
> When I come across an image (not inside a link) that has BOTH a title and
> alt attributes, JAWS reads ONLY the title -- and I can not get it to read
> the alt content!

I ran into the same issue doing some user testing with JAWS recently. It
does appear that for images (and image links), JAWS 3.7 will read only one
of the following, in this order of priority:
	(1) link title (if it is a link)
	(2) image title
	(3) image alt
JAWS does have configuration settings that apply to text links (read text,
title, or longest), but they don't seem to affect how it reads images.
Behavior was the same under both Windows 2000 and Windows 95.

Maybe in the next version...

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On
Behalf Of Bailey, Bruce
Sent: Monday, February 05, 2001 11:27 AM
To: 'w3c-wai-ig@w3.org'; 'poehlman1@home.com'; 'kynn@idyllmtn.com'
Subject: use of alt attributes in decorative images

Dear JAWS / HTML wizards,

Okay, I am using the latest version of JFW on a Windows 2000 box.
When I come across an image (not inside a link) that has BOTH a title and
alt attributes, JAWS reads ONLY the title -- and I can not get it to read
the alt content!

(1)  Can any else on this list confirm this bad behavior?  Home Page Reader
and Lynx don't have this problem!

(2)  Am I doing something wrong?  Is there a reasonable way around this
obstacle?  I even adjusted the "HTML Graphics Verbosity" level.  Now JAWS
reads the file name of the graphic, but still not the alt content.  Please
advise.

(3)  Does anyone know if using title on a link that contains an image causes
similar problems?  E.g.:
	<a href="foo.html" title=""><img src="foo.png" alt="Link to
Foo."></a>
I have recommend variations on the above as a way to accessibly defeat IE
image mouse-over pop-ups that site authors disliked.  Did I inadvertently
give bad advice?

(4)  Does Mozilla / Netscape 6 visually render ALT or TITLE like MS IE does
on Windows?

IMHO titles belong on links -- and that's about it.  (Yes, Kynn, I know the
specs allow them just about everywhere, but that's not the point.)

Thanks.

-- Bruce

Received on Monday, 5 February 2001 13:15:37 UTC