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Re: Investigating the proposed alt attributerecommendations in HTML 5

for

From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Aug 30, 2007 8:40AM


Maybe I'm misunderstanding the situation, but HTML5 is not removing the
alt attribute, just not making it required. For linked images, omitting
the alt attribute and not having a good value would still be an
accessiblity issue, and it would be valid and expected to add alt="Boba
and Franny's Baby Cat Sleeping". I think that your page highlights why
it is necessary to use the alt attribute on images, but it doesn't
address what the downside of not requiring the alt attribute for all
images.

I feel like this change is being received as a stab in the back to all
the good work in accessibility that has taken place over the years, but
I don't think that is the case....

AWK


> -----Original Message-----
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of
> Christian Heilmann
> Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 5:07 AM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Investigating the proposed alt
> attributerecommendations in HTML 5
>
> > If the developers of flickr.com or Photobucket were to
> implement the
> > recommendations regarding the omission of the alt attribute
> within the
> > current HTML 5 draft what are the potential effects upon the
> > accessibility of the sites for users of assistive
> technology such as screen readers?
> >
> > Investigating the proposed alt attribute recommendations in
> HTML 5 -
> > http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/articles/altinhtml5.html
>
> The easier question is what is the impact on SEO, as this is
> where a money loss would be felt which sadly enough makes
> people listen more eagerly.
>
> --
> Chris Heilmann
> Book: http://www.beginningjavascript.com
> Blog: http://www.wait-till-i.com
> Writing: http://icant.co.uk/
>