Re: ALT-text and LONGDESC presentation

At 10:34 PM 25/03/98 +0100, jaap van lelieveld wrote:
>Proposal for UA guidelines:
>
>Presenting an ALT-text or LONGDESC to the user
> -    It must be clear when an ALT-text is available/presented.

I disagree.  ALT text is replacement text for the image.  Good ALT text
fits seamlessly into the context of the document, without the need to
announce "Hey, there's an image here!".  ALT text should be presented as if
it were normal text and there was no image.  Let's look at a common example:

<H1><IMG SRC="wdglogo.gif" ALT="Welcome to the Web Design Group"></H1>

If the UA makes it clear that ALT text is being presented, the aural user
hears something like "ALT: Welcome to the Web Design Group".  If the UA
presents ALT text as normal text, the aural user hears "Welcome to the Web
Design Group".  In my opinion, the latter is much easier to listen to and
understand.  The fact that the information is presented with an image on
graphical browsers should not be of interest to the average aural user; if
the user were interested in the image, then he or she should get a hold of
the LONGDESC if one is available.

> -    It must be clear if a LONGDESC is available.

Agreed.

> -    It must be clear when a LONGDESC is presented.

I guess so...  My understanding of LONGDESC is that it would only be
presented upon request of the user, in which case it would be obvious that
the LONGDESC is being given.

--
Liam Quinn
Web Design Group            Enhanced Designs, Web Site Development
http://www.htmlhelp.com/    http://enhanced-designs.com/

Received on Wednesday, 25 March 1998 19:23:12 UTC