Insight into the assumption that informs the HTML5 editors thinking on what constitutes an appropriate text alternative

The assumption [1] that informs the normative and informative
statements in the current HTML5 spec in regards to alt, does not take
into account a primary use case for consumers of text alternatives.

AT's such as JAWS and Window Eyes inform a user of an images presence
when an image receives virtual focus:

<img alt="some text">

announces: "graphic some text"


[1] http://krijnhoetmer.nl/irc-logs/whatwg/20080822#l-271

# [11:12] <hsivonen> Hixie: there's a chance that your assuption that
alt text should make sense when flattened as part of surrounding prose
isn't the right assumption
# [11:13] <hsivonen> Hixie: and that users would be better off getting
cued that a piece of text is an alt digression from the surrounding
prose and doesn't need to flow nicely into the paragraph
# [11:13] <Hixie> there's always a chance that i'm wrong on many things :-)
# [11:14] <Hixie> well i don't know about AT users, but at least from
the point of view of a Lynx/Links user (which I am regularly), I
certainly wouldn't want to be told whenever there's an image, i just
want the image replaced with the text

-- 
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