Re: Alt Tags and HTML 4.0

Yes for the 'img and 'area' (map area) elements. It can be used but is not
required on 'applet' elements (these can have real content, like 'object'
does) nor on 'input' elements (it only makes sense for some types of input
element).

From the HTML 4.01 specification definition of the 'img' element:
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/objects.html#edef-IMG

<!-- To avoid problems with text-only UAs as well as
   to make image content understandable and navigable
   to users of non-visual 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         %URI;          #REQUIRED -- URI of image to embed --
  alt         %Text;         #REQUIRED -- short description --
  longdesc    %URI;          #IMPLIED  -- link to long description
                                          (complements alt) --
  name        CDATA          #IMPLIED  -- name of image for scripting --
  height      %Length;       #IMPLIED  -- override height --
  width       %Length;       #IMPLIED  -- override width --
  usemap      %URI;          #IMPLIED  -- use client-side image map --
  ismap       (ismap)        #IMPLIED  -- use server-side image map --
  >

This means that the attributes 'alt' and 'src' are required to be valid, and
that there are some other attributes (including %coreattrs, %i18n, and
%events which together add things like the ability to add onfocus, lang or
title attributes) that can be used.

cheers

Charles

On Thu, 23 Aug 2001, Michael R. Burks wrote:

  All,

  does HTML 4.0 Require the use of Alt tags to be valid code?

  Sincerely,


  Mike Burks


-- 
Charles McCathieNevile    http://www.w3.org/People/Charles  phone: +61 409 134 136
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Received on Thursday, 23 August 2001 14:14:30 UTC