RE: alt text & punctuation - best practice?

Text should not be used in images without an accessible alternative to
those with low vision.  When you enlarge bitmapped text, it becomes
unreadable.

>
>
>> an image should not have words in it in the first place for reasons
>> that are well documented in the archives of this list.
>
> Could you point me to a specific guideline that covers this statement?
> Perhaps those who manage this site - http://www.w3.org/ should be
> informed of your thoughts.  I see several images with words in them.
>
>> If you have full sentences in images, you need to use another
>> form to display them which has not been satisfactorily worked out yet.
>
> And in the interim we should...?  There are millions of ads on the web
> that use images.  Are you suggesting all of these should be eliminated?
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: david poehlman [mailto:poehlman1@comcast.net]
> Sent: Monday, June 21, 2004 9:41 AM
> To: Mattes, Kurt (Bank One); Rebecca.Cox@intergen.co.nz;
> w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> Subject: Re: alt text & punctuation - best practice?
>
>
> an image should not have words in it in the first place for reasons that
> are well documented in the archives of this list.  This has much to do
> wht machine processable data and with people using low vision at to
> interact with the web.  If you have full sentences in images, you need
> to use another form to display them which has not been satisfactorily
> worked out yet. There is also another reason for not putting words in
> images hence in alt text where they should go which is that there is a
> max length to an alt attrig and the textual content of the image can
> well acceed that max.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <Kurt_Mattes@bankone.com>
> To: <poehlman1@comcast.net>; <Rebecca.Cox@intergen.co.nz>;
> <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
> Sent: Monday, June 21, 2004 8:49 AM
> Subject: RE: alt text & punctuation - best practice?
>
>
>
>> <img src="w3.gif" alt="W3C leading the web to its full potential">
>> *dp* this is not a full sentence and an alt tag should never be a full
>> sentance.
>
> Why?  If the image an alt refers to contains a complete sentence,
> shouldn't the alt tag?
>
>
> Kurt Mattes
> Application Development Analyst
> Technical Lead - Web Accessibility
> [302] 282-1414 * Kurt_Mattes@BankOne.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On
> Behalf Of david poehlman
> Sent: Monday, June 21, 2004 8:42 AM
> To: Rebecca Cox; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> Subject: Re: alt text & punctuation - best practice?
>
>
>
> see comments inline marked with *dp*.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Rebecca Cox" <Rebecca.Cox@intergen.co.nz>
> To: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
> Sent: Sunday, June 20, 2004 10:38 PM
> Subject: alt text & punctuation - best practice?
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> I am working with some guidelines on alt text and just wanted to see
> what people feel is current best practice with regard to adding
> punctuation to force a pause - for example, in these situations what
> would be the preferred technique?
>
> 1. For short alt text on an image which may or may not be a link:
>
> Either, just the text, no extra punctuation:
>
> <a href="news.html"><img src="news.gif" alt="News"></a>
> *dp* extend the link to include a bit of text such as news before the
> closing marker.  For alt texsts period which should be short at any
> rate, no punctuation should be required at all.  Remember, some people
> are going to be transcribing this stuff into braille or printing it out
> on a printer in text form and also, the kiss factor, people will wonder
> as they look at this stuff, what is this punctuation mark here for?
> Most if not all user agent/at combinations can let us know that we are
> looking at a "graphic" "bmp" whatever they designate it as.
>
> Or with full stop and space, like so:
>
> <a href="news.html"><img src="news.gif" alt="News. "></a>
>
> *dp* I would go on to say that an image in an href which has a fully
> marked up container such as the above should be null alted because the
> text belongs in the link, not in the alt and the link text should stand
> for the alt in that there should be nothing in the image that conveys
> anything that cannot be put into the link text.
>
> 2. For longer alt text which should read like a sentence:
>
> Either:
>
> <img src="w3.gif" alt="W3C leading the web to its full potential"> *dp*
> this is not a full sentence and an alt tag should never be a full
> sentance.
>
> Or:
> *dp* no punctuation is required see above.
>
> <img src="w3.gif" alt="W3C leading the web to its full potential. ">
>
>
> 3. For alt text on an image which functions as a section heading:
>
> Either:
>
> <h2><img src="about.gif" alt="About the council"></h2>
>
> Or:
>
> <h2><img src="about.gif" alt="About the council. "></h2>
>
> *dp* Again, there are ways to find headings in current at and in some
> way back so punctuation is not necessary.  Mark a heading up in the same
> way you would mark the beginning of a section in a text book since it
> may be brailled or printed.  We've lived quite well with headings and
> alt tags being non differentiated in this way and this is the least of
> the auditory inaccessibility we have to contend with.  Authors have
> enough to contend with as it is and if you want to raise the hackles of
> the balancers, start adopting things like this and you will.  This is
> not to say that hackles should not be raised appropriately though.
>
> g'day!
> Cheers all,
>
>
> Rebecca Cox
> Production Designer
>
> INTERGEN - Intelligent Business
> Level 3, Intergen House, 44-52 The Terrace
> PO Box 5428, Wellington, New Zealand
>
>
>
>
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Received on Monday, 21 June 2004 16:35:01 UTC