Handling Graphs and charts (Was RE: Alt (was Re: longdesc)

Just a thought

If there is a graph it shoudl be pretty obvious visually. So how about, for a graph or chart alt="Chart showing (chart title) - for detail follow the link (name of link)" substituting (chart title) and (name of link) as appropriate. In the link then, accessible to both sighted and non-sighted users,  a full description of the chart and its data if appropriate (not just the data as that then becomes a meaningless table), the full description highlighting what the author intends, describing, for instance, trends over time. 

This way we havedle the brevity of an alt with a full statement of the substantive content of the chart and not fiddle about with stuf not intended to be used in teh way we're using it. Yes, we could use longdesc, but that has its problems and is normally hidden from sighted users.

John