- From: Jason White <jasonw@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU>
- Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 10:47:27 +1000 (AEST)
- To: WAI Working Group <w3c-wai-wg@w3.org>
I am somewhat ignorant of image file formats. Do those formats which are in use today allow for a header, containing a descriptive title, to precede the graphical data? I remember having read that W3C was working on the development of image formats, so this issue could be raised in that context. Now as is pointed out in RFC1866, it is expected that the client will retrieve an image file referenced by an img element automatically, without user intervention. This could easily be extended to an HTTP request for the header containing the description. Furthermore, the header could include, among others, the following two components: (1) a title for the image; (2) an optional long description of the image. The same scheme could also be applied to audio resources. A fully concur with Daniel's misgivings regarding "text only" pages: there should only be a single HTML document, which contains all of the necessary semantic content in a form that is independent of presentation. In the WAI briefing package, it was said that there is a need for web page simplification, namely, techniques for reducing the complexity of web pages. Although this could be accomplished by the server in response to an HTTP request (assuming the necessary extensions to HTTP), it would be better, I think, to conduct any needed transformations on the client side by means of style sheets.
Received on Wednesday, 9 July 1997 20:47:36 UTC