- From: Jason White <jasonw@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU>
- Date: Wed, 9 Jul 1997 20:12:12 +1000 (AEST)
- To: WAI Working Group <w3c-wai-wg@w3.org>
One modification to HTTP which would benefit people with disabilities has been suggested by Al Gilman and is documented on his web site: http://www.access.digex.net/%7easgilman/web-access/perc_rfc.html. Essentially, the proposal is that HTTP should be changed to allow the title of an HTML document to be requested and retrieved independently of the document itself. Thus, if the content of an anchor element is an image, the client is text based, and no ALT attribute is provided, then the title of the HTML document to which the link refers could be obtained without having to transfer the entire file across the network. Although I think this idea has merit, in that it offers a practical solution in cases where authors have neglected to include alt attributes in img elements which serve as links to other HTML documents, I would prefer that the alt attribute itself be required and that authoring software adopt the practice of prompting for a textual description whenever a reference to an image is made.. I have sometimes wondered whether, by making the kind of modification to HTTP that Al has suggested, one would be inadvertently sending a signal to content providers that they do not need to be diligent in ensuring that the alt attribute is used, since the HTTP change will serve as a fall-back mechanism that text-based clients can rely upon in any case. Another issue which is also relevant here, is the practice of writing text only pages, in circumstances in which the default (graphical) presentation can not be readily modified so as to make it accessible. Firstly, I would question whether, given the HTML 4.0 proposals relating to tables and forms, there will be much need for "text only" alternative pages in the future, particularly once the "screen reader" access paradigm has been supplanted by the widespread availability of braille and audio clients that have direct access to HTML and CSS content. However, if it is considered that there will continue to be a substantial need for "text only" pages, then it might be reasonable for a client to be able to indicate to the server via HTTP that text only pages are to be provided, if available.
Received on Wednesday, 9 July 1997 06:12:23 UTC