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RE: ALT tags vs TITLE tags

for

From: Jon Gunderson
Date: Dec 2, 2003 10:05AM

The rendering of ALT text information is dependent on the browser you are
using, not the operating system. There are also more than one way a
browser can render alt text. The typical way is as a substitution for the
image when images are turned off. This has side issues, like what does the
browser do when the ALT text doesn't fit into the graphical real estate of
the image, many browser just clip the ALT text to fit in the original
window. Some browsers like IE will generate a "tooltip" when the user
hovers over an image. More potential techniques on the rendering of ALT
text can be found at:

http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/NOTE-UAAG10-TECHS-20021217/guidelines.html#tech-conditional-content

Jon


At 07:08 AM 12/2/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>It seems that you're looking at using ALT for a tooltip, which is one of the
>things that MS IE does.
>ALT attributes are intended to serve as alternative text, not as a tool tip,
>and AFAIK all browsers support the attribute just as they should.
>There is no Mac issue with ALT
>
>-Karl
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Victoria Hamill [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
>Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 6:57 AM
>To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
>Subject: ALT tags vs TITLE tags
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Hi,
>
>I'm a bit uncertain over what to do about the use of ALT tags on images
>when catering for Mac users. I'm not sure why, but ALT tags don't show up
>on the Mac - is this normal or am I likely to have got something wrong?
>
>The alternative is to use TITLE tags, as they do work, but I'm not sure
>about the impact of doing that in terms of screen readers and so on. I
>tried having an ALT tag and a TITLE tag just to see what happened, and the
>TITLE tag over-wrote the ALT tag.
>
>What is the correct way of using ALT tags? This seems a pretty banal
>question, as in theory alt tags are not complicated!
>All the literature I've read around accessibility talks about ALT tags and
>Long Descriptions, so I suspect it would not be right to replace them with
>TITLEs, so how do other people get around the Mac issue??
>
>Thanks
>
>Victoria
>-----------------------------------------------------
>Victoria Hamill
>NetInfo
>Phone: (44) 1628-687863
>Email: <EMAIL REMOVED>
>URL: http://www.netinfo.com
> - More than meets the eye
>
>
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Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., ATP
Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology
Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services
MC-574
College of Applied Life Studies
University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
1207 S. Oak Street, Champaign, IL 61820

Voice: (217) 244-5870
Fax: (217) 333-0248

E-mail: <EMAIL REMOVED>

WWW: http://cita.rehab.uiuc.edu/
WWW: http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~jongund



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