Re: Flickr and alt

> Patrick H. Lauke wrote:
> I think the crux of the argument is: should the tool warn the user that
> they're breaking the compliance aspect of HTML5 (even if their output is
> valid when run through a validator), or that they're breaking WCAG?

I don't think it's wise to base conformance requirements around the
limitations of validators. A validator would be unable to tell if the
alt text provided for an image is appropriate against the guidelines
as they're currently written. As you know more than most - developers
should understand that validators can confirm the syntactical
correctness of markup, but conformance can only be verified by a
human.

Consumers of HTML5 will fall into 3 categories, with regards to conformance:

1: Those who couldn't care less about conformance

2: Those who aren't concerned with conformance, but want a validator
to give them the all-clear

3: Those who do care about conformance

We would want them all to be in category 3, but judging by the current
trend, most consumers would fall into category 1. It would be better
to educate those in category 1 and category 2 that they should be
aiming for category 3, rather than lowering conformance requirements
to appease those who either don't care about conformance, or just want
the all-clear from a validator.

Without alt text, images won't be perceivable to some people. If an
author decides not to provide alt text for whatever reason, that's
fair enough, but I don't understand why that should be considered
compliant when the structure isn't sufficient for some people.

Cheers,

Gez

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Received on Tuesday, 19 August 2008 08:38:58 UTC