Re: [html4all] Request for review of alt and alt value for authoring or publishing tools

Hi Lachlan,

> HTML5 conformance criteria should not be considered to be a social
> engineering tool.  The lack of requirement for alt in a few cases does
> not prevent alt text inspection tools being integrated into
> accessibility checkers or validators.  Social engineering on this issue
> can and should continue through other avenues, such as accessibility
> guidelines, advocacy and education; but not in the HTML5 specification.

The current spec in most cases related to the alt does _require_ an
alt with a useful value as a conformance criteria. So it is being used
as a "Social engineering" tool.

regards
stevef
On 16/04/2008, Lachlan Hunt <lachlan.hunt@lachy.id.au> wrote:
> John Foliot wrote:
> > However, if the next generation authoring language *DID NOT ALLOW
> > THIS*, then Flickr and kin would wake up and smell the coffee, and
> > allow the contributors the ability to do the right thing.
>
> Keep in mind that the *current* generation authoring language does not
> allow alt to be omitted.  A simple requirement for alt in HTML5, just
> like in HTML4, won't have any effect on sites like flickr.  But there is
> sure to be other, more effective approaches that might.
>
> > It is for this *VERY* reason that the next-gen language needs to be more
> > pro-active in the social engineering regard, to force (through the risk of
> > non-conformance) authoring tools to provide the ability for content authors
> > to do the right thing - something I cannot do at Flickr even if I wanted to.
>
> HTML5 conformance criteria should not be considered to be a social
> engineering tool.  The lack of requirement for alt in a few cases does
> not prevent alt text inspection tools being integrated into
> accessibility checkers or validators.  Social engineering on this issue
> can and should continue through other avenues, such as accessibility
> guidelines, advocacy and education; but not in the HTML5 specification.
>
> --
> Lachlan Hunt - Opera Software
> http://lachy.id.au/
> http://www.opera.com/
>
> _______________________________________________
> List_HTML4all.org mailing list
> http://www.html4all.org/wiki
>


-- 
with regards

Steve Faulkner
Technical Director - TPG Europe
Director - Web Accessibility Tools Consortium

www.paciellogroup.com | www.wat-c.org
Web Accessibility Toolbar -
http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html

Received on Wednesday, 16 April 2008 09:53:13 UTC