- From: David Poehlman <poehlman1@home.com>
- Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2001 11:28:40 -0400
- To: "wai-ig list" <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
----- Original Message ----- From: "piw101" <piw101@ONETEL.NET.UK> To: <BLIND-L@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU> Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2001 6:06 AM Subject: ALT text project Dear Members, >I am an Msc student of Computer Science at the University of York working >under the supervision of Dr A.D.N. Edwards. I would like to ask for a few minutes of your time to help with my project on web accessibility. I would like you to visit a web site I have set up and then answer some questions (below) on it. The site was developed using Internet Explorer and Jaws version 3.7, but it has also been tested on Netscape. All web accessibility guidelines advocate the use of 'ALT texts' for images on web pages. The question is to what that text should contain. I have drafted some guidelines and suggested conventions for these texts and I would like some feedback on their viability. The web site is a mock-up of an on-line bookshop. It is fictional, so the information on it cannot be relied on and you cannot buy any books from it! Also most of the links are not operational (e.g. you cannot actually put anything into your shopping basket). As with genuine retail sites, there a quite a lot of pictures and these have all been given ALT texts. It is your perception of the usefulness of these texts which I am interested in. The conventions I have used are: * A logo is represented by the text (e.g. the company name) appearing in square brackets, e.g. [IBM] * Navigation icons are marked by the ALT text starting with a tilde (i.e. ~) * Bullets are given the ALT text * * Image links have a descriptive ALT, followed by ~ destination. For example - ALT="Harry Potter's Head. ~ Harry Potter Page" indicates a picture of Harry Potter which links to a fuller page describing Harry Potter products * The size of some image files is indicated in their ALT texts. This follows existing recommendations for ALT texts. * 'D-tags' which lead to fuller textual descriptions are used in some places. * Where it is imperative that the user reads all the ALT text, this is marked as '100%' The site can be found at <http://www.geocities.com/piw100/> and the fictional bookshop is called Howl's Books. There is a questionnaire below to guide your responses, but I would be extremely grateful for any feedback. My e-mail address is >piw101@onetel.net.uk or just reply to this message. Please note that all information you provide will be treated as strictly confidential. The results of the study will appear in a report which will be publicly available, but you will NOT be identifiable in any such publication. If you would like to know more about the results of the study and to receive a copy of the report, please indicate so in your reply. Thank you very much, in anticipation, Philippa Questionnaire >1. Software: a) Which browser or browsers do you use most? b) Which screen reader do you use? c) Do you use speech, braille or both? >2. Use and experience: a) Approximately how many hours per week do you access the web? >b) How would you rate your expertise with using the internet - Expert / >Above Average / Average/ Beginner? > > > >3. Where a logo appears, I have enclosed the name of the company within >square brackets. > >a) Do you feel that a logo should be differentiated from the text? > >b) Do you feel a logo is an important indicator of the page's official status? c) Is the use of square brackets a good way of signalling a logo? d) If not, what might be a better indicator of a logo: The word 'logo' in an ALT text? Or (L)? Or something else? 4. I have tried to differentiate between image links and navigation icons. >a) Does this use of ~ make an image easier to recognise as a navigation icon? > >b) If not, can you suggest an alternative marker? 5. Image links have a descriptive ALT, followed by ~ destination. >a) Is this a clear navigation path when using a screen reader? > >b) Is it useful to know where an image links to via the ALT tag, or should >this information always be replaced with a text link? > >6. Following existing guidelines for visual browsers I have included >information about the size of images in the ALT texts >on the bestsellers page (www.geocities.com/piw100/howlsbest.html <http://www.geocities.com/piw100/howlsbest.html>). Sizes >are enclosed within curly brackets. > >a) Is this information of any interest? > >b) Can the size of the image be distinguished from the rest of the ALT text? > >7. Within the site there are some cases of D tags. Again, this is >indicated by {D} within the ALT. > >a) Do you prefer D tags to longdesc tags ? > >b) Is the {D} notation a clear indicator of a link to further information? > >8. I have used {100%} to indicate where it is essential that the full >description of an image be read. > >a) Are ALT tags overloaded by this information? > >b) Can you suggest a more concise notation? > >9. > >a) Should animated gifs which alternate between images be given seperate >ALT texts or be combined in one text? > >b) Should their 'type' be differentiated from static images? > > > >10. Ideally, I would like to replace all the ASCII notations for different >types of images with non-speech sounds. I would indicate whether an image >was a link, navigation icon or logo by a non-speech sound, whilst still >providing an ALT text description. > >a) What is your opinion of this proposal? > > > >11. Do you have any further comments? 12. Would you like to hear more about the results of this study, and to receive a copy of the final report? Thank you very much for your assistance.
Received on Saturday, 18 August 2001 11:28:49 UTC