Re: feedback requested on WAI CG Consensus Resolutions on Text alternatives in HTML 5 document

On 17/08/2009 09:42, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
> Would it be appropriate, in light of this, to add a user agent
> requirement that an img with empty alt should not be mapped to
> accessibility APIs at all?

Given the variety of authoring practice around "alt", I don't think that 
would be safe.

In situations like:

<a href="#"><img src="delete.png" alt=""></a>

It's useful to AT for the "img" to be exposed and to be able to access 
"src" attributes for the purpose of providing a substitute for proper 
alternative text.

http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-USERAGENT/guidelines.html#tech-missing-alt

More tendentiously, perhaps, in situations like:

<p>As you can see from the chart below, sales increased in 2008:</p>
<img alt="" src="chart.png">

Even if users can't consume the chart themselves, it's useful to users 
to be able to download or hotlink that referenced chart in a 
collaborative environment (e.g. a corporate wiki).

By contrast:

<img alt="" src="bullet.png">

really is purely decorative; in a collaborative environment that seems 
likely to be generated by authoring software.

--	
Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis

Received on Monday, 17 August 2009 09:00:56 UTC