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

I'd make this:
alt="chart title"
and either use a long desc to provide the chart in narative form or just a 
link with a clear target such as "data for growth from 1959 - 1972.

If the long desc is hidden from visual rendering, that needs to be fixed.

Jonnie Apple Seed

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Colby" <John.Colby@uce.ac.uk>
To: "Katie Smith" <ksmith@no10.x.gsi.gov.uk>; <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2004 10:20 AM
Subject: 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

Received on Tuesday, 21 December 2004 15:48:47 UTC