photos, JS, SScripting...

Hi all -
I'm after some advice and clarification; i have lots of "bits of
information" floating around in my head, but i can;t get it into a coherant
picture.

Firstly - i'm trying top make my pages as "accessible as possible".
I'm going to be testing on
IE6 / NS 6/ IE5 / Opera / Lynx / NS4.
Nothing older.
With and without images, Javascript,. colours, user-fonts and CSS enabled.
(anything else?! )

I am not yet up to Server-side scripting; i like JS *but* people turn it
off.
Presumably, once i graduate to SSS, i can fix at least some of the following
puzzles.

(1)
Am i correct in thinking that the  html <longdesc> tag is ignored by graphic
browsers, but used by text-only (such as Lynx)?
My book says that *no* browsers currently support it, but i have a vague
feeling that (some of) the text-only ones *do*, to compensate for lack of
images.
But i could be wrong (i often am).

(2)
My page will be quite photos-intensive; say 10 photos per page, 10 pages.

I don;t want to clog-up my HTML with all details of each photo inline, as in
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------
<a href="javascript:openWindow('HHPhotoSingle.htm?Pic=VolSG/SG02,The Sunken
Garden,Saturday-morning task work in the Sunken Garden showing our
newly-elected councillor mowing the lawn','myNewWindow',800,600)">
<img src="images/VolSG/SG02_tn.jpg" alt="The Sunken Garden"
class="tnVertRight" /></a>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------
So i set up JS arrays so i can use
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------
 <a href="javascript:openWindow('HHPhotoSingle.htm','PhotoDisplay',SG02)">
      <img alt="Sunken Garden"  src="images/VolSG/SG02_tn.jpg"/></a>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------
instead - and the new HHPhotoSingle page can access the photo details via
the key "SG02" (thanks Brett!)

But - this means that with JS off, nothing works.

I tried to combine an onclick event to show the window if JS was disabled -
But i couldn;t quite figure out the code;

And anyway, that way i lose the advantage of my JS collection of photo
details - so i considered  giving minimal alt-text and general window sizes
for the onclick event; i.e. reduced information for non-JS users.
because i really don;t want to clog up the html with all the detail that i
want to include per page.

Also - if  (as i think) the  html <longdesc> tag is  used by text-only
browsers (such as Lynx) -
can these browsers be JS-enabled?
I planned to pack the longdesc away into a collection in a spearate file,
and make it only accessible via JS;
but if text-only browsers cannot handle JS (someone said, i'm not too
sure) - then *no-one* will be able to access the longdesc text!

As i say - presumably, SSS will be able to solve much of these problesm, but
what i am after is:

maximum accessiblilty for IE6/NS6 with JS
maximum accessiblilty for Lynx/text-only browsers with JS - if this can
happen?
accessibility and legibility, but with degrading bells-and-whistles for
older browsers, and those with JS disabled.
Possibly degrading textual information associated with  images for those
with JS disabled (as in the limited "alt" text where the detailed stuff is
stored in a JS collection. )

If anyone can clarify my assumptions,. and give me advice on the direction I
ougfht to take, i'd be most grateful!

thanks -

hilma
-x-----

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