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

> Content-Type: text/plain;
> 	charset="utf-8"
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
> 
> SnVzdCBhIHRob3VnaHQNCg0KSWYgdGhlcmUgaXMgYSBncmFwaCBpdCBzaG91ZGwgYmUgcHJldHR5
> IG9idmlvdXMgdmlzdWFsbHkuIFNvIGhvdyBhYm91dCwgZm9yIGEgZ3JhcGggb3IgY2hhcnQgYWx0

Please use plain text! [A]

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

The alt text for a graph depends on the nature of a graph.  If it is
in a social sciences research paper, it is unlikely that one could
summarise it better than the extensive prose text that should already
accompany it.  If it is in advertising copy (the case for most web
pages), and if what the graph appears to show would stand up in court,
the alt text should say what should be the instant conclusion of viewing
the graph.

[A] My email transport will unscramble inappropriate use of base64 if 
the document is single part, but the "HTML" alternative meant that the
email was too complex for that - my user agent unscrambles it for viewing,
but not for replying.  The whole point of UTF-8 is that you can encode
Western European languages in it and have them come out looking more or
less like ASCII text, with no need for special encodings.

Received on Tuesday, 21 December 2004 21:59:12 UTC