Re: Alt is not a description (was Re: when to use longdesc for images)

1) How exactly are you meaning that "alt" is a replacement?

2)The second example of that page;

<A HREF="home.htm"><IMG SRC="home.gif" ALT="Link to the Home page."></A>

Yes your browser would know that the image is a link. "alt" is merely 
being used to "describe" where the link will bring you. Say for instance 
the page name was href to smothrpg.com  a user would have no idea where 
that links leads  "alt"  would inform them that  smothrpg.com  is "Link 
to the help page".

Which is a clear example of how "alt" is a description.

Matthew J. Giustino
mjg@giustiweb.com

David Dorward wrote:

>On Tue, Dec 21, 2004 at 07:33:09AM -0500, Matthew J. Giustino wrote:
>  
>
>>   I disagree, "alt" is in fact a description.
>>
>>   Maybe this page will clarify the "alt" attribute for this discussion.
>>   Reference for "alt" : http://www.w3.org/WAI/wcag-curric/sam2-0.htm
>>    
>>
>
>That, I think, needs rewriting. 
>
>Alt is a replacement. _Sometimes_ (maybe even often) a description of
>the image is a good replacement, but not always.
>
>Certainly I think that the second example should be changed, browsers
>already announce links when they hit <a> elements with href
>attributes, stating that the link is a link is redundant and wasteful.
>
>
>  
>

Received on Tuesday, 21 December 2004 12:56:43 UTC