RE: CTL:20030124-10039 Automated Response: htlm

Michael,

many thanks for your response. If there is no way to get the alt attribute
into the HTML then I think you (Crystal Decisions) have a big problem and a
bit of product re-engineering to consider.

Many local government organisations, both here in the UK and in the US, use
some form of Crystal Reporting on their websites using either the URL method
or CSP to deliver the HTML pages. If there is no way of generating an alt
attribute for images contained within the pages then the use of Crystal
means that the organisation's website is not 508 (US) or DDA (UK) compliant.
You are probably aware that other software vendors are making efforts to
make their products compliant with accessibility requirements (Macromedia,
Adobe, Microsoft...) and they are doing so because it makes good business
sense. I'm slightly surprised that your first thought on my reason for
trying to include an alt attribute is for copyright reasons. Briefly, the
alt attribute is the only way that visually impaired users, those with text
browsers, or those surfing with images turned off because of slow dial-up
connections can gain information about what an image is trying to convey. 

The generation of a tool-tip text that appears when a user hover the mouse
over the image does not satisfy the accessibility requirement since it is
not associated with the image, is not device-independent and will not work
with all browsers. Similarly the required use of the Java or ActiveX viewer
to achieve this effect is not an option either since this viewer will not
work with all browsers. In fact, even the DHTML viewer will not produce
webpages that are accessible since it requires the use of some flavour of
javascript and not all browsers can handle javascript and not all users
browse with javascript enabled. The only viewer available to us is the
HTML_frame or page version.

It seems to me such a small modification in the software functionality to
let the report author include some text that will be used as the alt
attribute if the reports are viewed as webpages. Such a small modification
for such a huge gain. If a utility were to be developed that allowed Crystal
Report authors to do this then I (and several others I know) would be
willing to do some user testing if necessary.

regards

Julian

> -----Original Message-----
> From: answers@crystaldecisions.com 
> [mailto:answers@crystaldecisions.com]
> Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 6:18 PM
> To: julian.scarlett@sheffield.gov.uk
> Subject: RE: CTL:20030124-10039 Automated Response: htlm
> 
> 
> This EMail was sent: 1/24/2003 10:17:55 AM (Pacific Standard Time)
> 
> *** Response to your question - CTL:20030124-10039  ***
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> --------------------------------------------------------------
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> 
> Response To: Julian Scarlett
> 
> Julian,
> 
> Thank you for using our Answers by Email System.
> 
> I think I can help you with this, however, depending on the 
> exactly what
> you are trying to achieve, this may not be possible.
> 
> if you are simply looking for the alt text on the image for copyright
> reasons, etc.. this is not possible.  If however, you are looking for
> something to display on the screen when a user "hovers" over 
> the image,
> this can be accomplished, however, it requires you to use a specific
> viewer.
> 
> In your report, in Crystal REPORTS, if you right click on the object
> (image) and choose "format graphic" on the common tab, there 
> is an option
> for "tool tip text"  this is a formula editor, and you can 
> put whatever
> you want in it as long as it fits the formula criteria.  once you have
> done this, it will show as alt text in an active-x viewer, however, it
> will NOT put the "alt" text on the image. If the image is 
> viewed in the
> JAVA viewer, it will show the "alt" text in the lower left 
> hand part of
> the java aplet within the browser window.  The way images are 
> viewed in
> the active-x and JAVA viewers is very different than the way 
> it is viewed
> with the DHTML viewer.  Unfortunately, the DHTML viewer does 
> not support
> this funtionality.
> 
> If this is not what you are looking for, please feel free to 
> email back
> with more a specific situation.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Michael Viggiano | Crystal Decisions
> Tech ID: 324
> www.crystaldecisions.com
> Access. Analyze. Report. Share
> 
> 
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Received on Monday, 27 January 2003 04:12:40 UTC