RE: alt text & punctuation - best practice?

Lois


> adding punctuation to headings: were you talking only in the
> context of alt
> texts on graphics used casually as headings, or do you mean
> *all* headings -
> including those properly marked up with h1/h2 tags etc? I am

I am mainly talking about proper headings, including those marked as
h1/h2 etc. I am not sure about alt text, but I suspect that the same
consideration applies for having sensible pauses.

> helpful in accessibility terms, it requires a rather dramatic shift in
> authoring practice, as you hinted.

It does, indeed. But doesn't most accessibility require a shift in
practice? -  Structured headings and mark-up instead of font changes;
meaningful links; using alt text; etc etc.

Which also raises issues of training and professionalisation, and the
need for simple structured editing tools like those discussed in the Nvu
thread, so that lay people can still produce good web content.

I have a 30 point checklist for writing for our web site. Of which
accessibility is only one. All of them require a shift in practice and
most of them don't apply to writing for paper.

The last one is "BUT its better to have more good content than limited
perfect content".

The need to maintain standards, including accessibility, undoubtedly and
sadly results in good content not reaching our web site as quickly or at
all.

Regards
Ian Litterick
www.dyslexic.com
www.iansyst.co.uk

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Received on Monday, 21 June 2004 11:55:33 UTC