- From: Michael A Squillace <masquill@us.ibm.com>
- Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 09:17:53 -0500
- To: "Laura Carlson" <laura.lee.carlson@gmail.com>
- Cc: "Al Gilman" <alfred.s.gilman@ieee.org>, "Michael Cooper" <cooper@w3.org>, "Judy Brewer" <jbrewer@w3.org>, "HTML5 WG" <public-html@w3.org>, wai-liaison@w3.org, wai-xtech@w3.org, wai-xtech-request@w3.org
- Message-ID: <OF0C832FD5.526F39E5-ON8525737E.004C5B6F-8625737E.004E8ABC@us.ibm.com>
Three points in favor of keeping the Alt attribute, some of which have been made but which I can't refrain from underscoring as a blind developer/content author/internet user: 1. The semantics and semantic inferences that are possible with alt text (in most cases) cannot be denied. The example involving, "Page containing 20 photos of "sleeping cats" with alt text," from Steve Faulkner http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/articles/altinhtml5.html demonstrates this; I'd rather have flicker put titles of pictures in as alt attributes and be able to discern some relationship, say, between the first three photos than have Jaws read out the image src attribute, which, in most cases, is useless to me. Moreover, such text makes it possible for a sighted friend to point me to the particular pictures, which I might then download or point out to others; I am not, as a blind web user, lost in a conversation amongst sighted friends. 2. Lachlan Hunt writes, "Making alt technically optional ...just acknowledges the reality of the situation in the hope of reducing the prevalence of poor quality, automatically generated alt text." http://blog.whatwg.org/omit-alt This argument is especially disconcerting to me as it simply states that, when insufficient tooling for producing the requisite attributes exists or when content authors are simply using attributes (or markup in general), that we simply make the markup optional. There are examples in abundance on the web where tables are not automatically marked up properly by tools or manually by authors - are we next going to make table headers, summaries, and captions optional as well? The solution, here, points to the tooling, not the HTML specification. 3. I am relatively new to the W3C and so not familiar with the particular individuals with whom I am conversing. However, it concerns me that fewer people with disabilities are involved in these conversations. The mere fact that little investigation into the actual ommission of the alt attribute for end-users alarms me as an AT user. I know that the W3C process is free and open to all, but the seeming lack of input of PWDs that this discussion implies ought to be addressed. --> Mike Squillace IBM Human Ability and Accessibility Center Austin, TX W:512.823.7423 M:512.970.0066 masquill@us.ibm.com www.ibm.com/able "Laura Carlson" <laura.lee.carlson@gmail.com> Sent by: wai-xtech-request@w3.org 10/23/2007 08:04 AM To wai-xtech@w3.org, "Al Gilman" <alfred.s.gilman@ieee.org>, "Judy Brewer" <jbrewer@w3.org>, "Michael Cooper" <cooper@w3.org>, wai-liaison@w3.org cc "HTML5 WG" <public-html@w3.org> Subject Request for PFWG WAI review of Omitting alt Attribute for Critical Content The HTML 5 working group is questioning and debating the need for the alt attribute on critical content. In fact, the current HTML 5 Editor's Draft allows instances where critical content is allowed to have no alt attribute on the img element. Alternate text is essential for accessibility. There needs to be a markup solution to indicate whether or not the alternate text of an image is critical to understand the content - omitting such an important attribute is ambiguous, and doesn't help anyone. The problem is differentiating between ignorant and intentional lack of text. The issue is detailed at: http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/IssueAltAttribute In order for this debate to reach a satisfactory resolution, review of this issue and advice from the PFWG and WAI on the potential accessibility impact of omitting alt attribute for critical content in HTML 5 would be appreciated. Thank you. Best Regards, Laura L. Carlson Steve Faulkner Gregory J. Rosmaita Joshue O Connor Philip TAYLOR Robert Burns -- HTML WG Members
Received on Wednesday, 24 October 2007 14:19:11 UTC