On Wed, 16 Apr 2008, Leif Halvard Silli wrote:
> Ian Hickson 08-04-15 21.09:
> > On Tue, 15 Apr 2008, Al Gilman wrote:
> >
> > The problem is that there are _three_ states, not two:
> >
> > 1. Image is not important. (alt="")
> > 2. Image is important, alternative text is available. (alt="...")
> > 3. Image is important, alternative text is not available.
> >
> > Case 3 is the one we are discussing. Cases 1 and 2 are well understood and
> > nobody is suggesting changing them.
>
> What do you exactly mean by "unavailable"?
I mean that the person generating the page (e.g. Flickr) has no idea what
the image represents, only that it's important.
> I ask because In another message you said that:
>
> > Ian Hickson wrote:
> >
> > > > The only actual solution suggestion I see there is alt="1",
> > > > alt="2", etc, but it is unclear how that would improve
> > > > accessibility.
>
> So, if you see the solution alt=1, alt=2, does that mean that
> alternative text **is** available? Or does it mean that it is
> unavailable?
As I said in that message and in messages following it, alt="1" would be a
bad choice for alternative text as it would hurt accessibility. The image
doesn't represent "1". We don't know what it represents. That's the
problem.
--
Ian Hickson U+1047E )\._.,--....,'``. fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/ U+263A /, _.. \ _\ ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'