Re: alt tags on useless graphics

On Sat, 11 Apr 1998 11:18:33 +0000 Paul Varese <Paul(at)MirrorMedia.com>
writes:
>O.K. group...here's a question:
>I always use alt tags on MOST of my graphics.
>Sometimes though, I'll use a very simple place-
>holder graphic such as a horizontal rule or a bullet.
>I don't usually tag these. Can anyone tell me why
>I should, and if so what would I write? Would I
>just label a horizontal rule as "horizontal rule"?
>Any suggestions? Does it REALLY matter?
>P.S. I assume you all understand that I'm talking
>about custom rules and bullets, not <HR> or <LI>
>Paul Varese

I'm glad you asked that!  The following is taken straight from the HTML
4.0 Recommendation, in the section on "Objects, Images, and Applets in
HTML documents" [1] :

<!-- Start Quote -->
13.8 How to specify alternate text

...

While alternate text may be very helpful, it must be handled with care.
Authors should observe the following guidelines:

Do not specify irrelevant alternate text when including images intended
to format a page, for instance, alt="red ball" would be inappropriate for
an image that adds a red ball for decorating a heading or paragraph. In
such cases, the alternate text should be the empty string (""). Authors
are in any case advised to avoid using images to format pages; style
sheets should be used instead. 
Do not specify meaningless alternate text (e.g., "dummy text"). Not only
will this frustrate users, it will slow down user agents that must
convert text to speech or braille output.
<!-- End quote -->

HTH!  ;-)

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/objects.html#alternate-text

~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=
-Ryan Fischer <ryan_fischer(at)juno.com> ICQ UIN - 595003
"I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king
 of infinite space were it not that I had bad dreams."
~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=

_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

HWG hwg-theory mailing list archives, maintained by Webmasters @ IWA