Re: advice on alt text for image maps

Hi Mallory, I tend to agree that it is useful and that the provision of alt
for an image map img does not mean that the end user needs to have it
announced/displayed. UA's could provide a preference to suppress alt on img
map images if it is such an annoyance.

I think the provision of alt should be based on whether the image is
informative/decorative etc.regardless of if the image is also being used as
an image map.

I also think that we need to look at examples of usage in the wild to get
some data, I am currently grepping some pages to find image maps and will
provide data for analysis when done.

--

Regards

SteveF
HTML 5.1 <http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/>


On 8 January 2014 08:48, Mallory van Achterberg <stommepoes@stommepoes.nl>wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 08, 2014 at 12:49:11AM +0200, Jukka K. Korpela wrote:
> > 2014-01-07 22:42, Patrick H. Lauke wrote:
> > >On 07/01/2014 18:18, Jukka K. Korpela wrote:
> > >>Specifically, in the case being discussed, if you hear (or see) text
> > >>that tells you to select between North Katoomba and South Katoomba, how
> > >>would the text ”Map of Katoomba” help you (when you do not see the
> map)?
> > >
> > >It would help to understand the context of those links, i.e. that
> > >there is a map and that the user can select different regions of
> > >that map to get to the content?
> > >
> >
> > In the example, the context had been specified in the text, and the
> > map does not add to it.
> >
> > How would it help to know that there is a map when you cannot see
> > that map?
>
> It's especially useful when multiple people are working and referring
> to the same document.
>
> Also not all blind people are 100% blind. It's useful as a user to
> know what the blob is everyone else is talking about. Oh, that image?
> it's a map of Katoomba. Now when your colleagues say "yeah that text
> under the Katoomba map" you're not totally lost and feeling like you
> can't keep up with everyone because some web dev didn't think it
> necessary to let you know things everyone else seems to Just Know.
>
> Sorry just my UserFrustration speaking. It's useful to know there is
> an image, and it's useful to know what it's an image OF. It also
> helps when silly people send HTML email to a text-only client and
> you wonder if that image is something important, related to the text
> you can read, or something you can safely ignore.
>
> -Mallory
>
>