- From: Patrick H. Lauke <redux@splintered.co.uk>
- Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 18:53:16 +0100
- To: 'WAI-IG' <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Michael R. Burks wrote: > > Does anyone know of any issues with animated gifs or other animated images > and screen readers? In and of itself, an animated gif is no different from any other image. A screen reader (in conjunction with the browser) will treat it like it does all images. In general: - if it has an ALT attribute, it will read that out; - if it's a decorative image with a null ALT, it should silently pass it over; - if there's no ALT set, it should announce it as "image", usually followed by the file name. (this is not a comprehensive list of behaviours, as it may change depending on the exact screen reader used and/or things like verbosity settings chosen by the user...but it should give you an indication) So, technically, it's not a problem. Now, there are other things you need to take into consideration when using animated gifs. If there's information in the different frames of the animation (e.g. text changing from one frame to the next), you need to ensure that said information is available in alternative format (e.g. text of all different frames in full in the image's ALT). Also make sure that the rate at which the image changes doesn't cause flicker that could pose a problem to users with photosensitive epilepsy. (see WCAG 1.0 guideline 7 http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/#gl-movement ) Patrick H. Lauke _____________________________________________________ re·dux (adj.): brought back; returned. used postpositively [latin : re-, re- + dux, leader; see duke.] www.splintered.co.uk | www.photographia.co.uk http://redux.deviantart.com
Received on Monday, 30 August 2004 17:52:48 UTC