Re: alt attribute - a very simple proposal

Hi Karl,

> I have followed the discussion around this for a very long time.

Me too.

Thorough details and history from September 2007 to date
http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/IssueAltAttribute

ISSUE 31 missing-alt
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/tracker/issues/31

ACTION-54 draft text for the spec. A group of us have worked this:
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/tracker/actions/54

ACTION 54: First Draft
http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/Action54AltAttribute

Discussion Page for HTML WG Action 54 First Draft
http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/Action54AltAttributeDiscussion

ACTION 54: Start of second draft
http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/Action54AltAttributeSecondDraft

Request for PF Review (March 2008)
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2008Mar/0234.html

Second Request for PF review (April 2008)
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2008Apr/0408.html

Third Request for PF review (August 2008)
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/wai-xtech/2008Aug/0024.html

> interesting use cases are described but I fear the list could go and go on.

I agree.

> 1. I would just keep alt attribute requirements to the functional
> requirements, such as if images are not loaded the content of the alt
> attribute must be displayed.
> 2. The specific requirements on accessibility such as  the content of the
> alt attribute depending on the use cases should be entirely left to WCAG.

Do you mean something like in the second draft of the image section rewrite?
http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/Action54AltAttributeSecondDraft#head-f2fc9a989269cce19dd470126eb7df7c46667099

> The specification would then be lighter, could have a pointer saying all the
> requirements for accessibility are defined in wcag 2.0.

http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/Action54AltAttributeSecondDraft#head-f0bf2ebf9f3e1fa190974101c6b70700ff176772

> For the class of products of
>   * search engines, functional requirement: indexing the text content.
>   * conformance checker: it is highly encouraged that conformance checker
> developers implement the  WCAG requirements on alt attribute.
>   * authoring tools, functional requirement: provide a way to edit the alt
> attribute.

http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/Action54AltAttributeSecondDraft#head-515ffad34aa5d3f21a87c7bfca0bdc5721162d6e

Thanks.

Best Regards,
Laura
-- 
Laura L. Carlson

Received on Tuesday, 19 August 2008 12:03:52 UTC