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

 

 -----Original Message----- 
 From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org on behalf of Léonie Watson 
 


 David Dorward wrote:-
     "The prose suggests giving a description of images which are
 decorative. Why? What benefit does it bring to users to know that
 there is a "Drawing of a house" somewhere in a document if they cannot
 see it and the only purpose of the image is to _look_ nice?"
 
    If the image of the house serves no purpose, then it probably shouldn't
 be there. If it serves the purpose of adding colour and vivacity to a
 document, then there is absolutely no reason why both sighted and non
 sighted users shouldn't participate in that emotive aspect. Both user groups
 will have some appreciation of what a house is, or more importantly what it
 represents. Their respective interpretations of exactly what a house looks
 like may well differ, but fundamentally it will achieve the same goal.
 
 
 Regards,
 Léonie.
 

 Is this not the purpose of background images in CSS? Enhancing the looks of the page whilst not adding to the content?

 John