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RE: Spliced Images

for

From: Leonard R. Kasday
Date: Sep 7, 2000 7:33AM

CSS positioning is still buggy in too many browsers to be usesable now I think.
I think the best thing is to use an alt tag in one and a blank alt tag in
the others, i.e. ALT=" "
In graphical editors you can often do this by putting a single space where
it asks for alt text.
Notes this is not the same has having no alt tag at all.
Also, splicing is usually used to make some of the areas links. You can
also use one large image and make it an image map. Works better in Lynx and
Home page explorer because it gives a convenient way to skip the links.
Remember to put alt tags for each area. Also, unfortunately, you still
need redundant text links at the bottom to accommodate old
browser/screenreader combos that don't pick up the image map alt tags...
unless you're sure your users are up to date.
Hmmm. Perhaps I'm being too conservative here. Are there any other
opinions about how important it is to have redundant text links for image
maps that already have alt text in their area tags? Are people still using
old software that doesn't pick up the area alt tags? Anybody have more
info on this?
Len
At 03:22 PM 9/6/00 -0600, you wrote:
>Many designers use tables to splice together complex images to form the
>look of one complex image. I realize that this can also be achieved
>using CSS. My question is how do you effectively use alt tags when
>multiple small images are used to form the look of a larger image. If you
>use the same alt tag for all of the small images, the screen reader would
>repeat the tag multiple times which could be annoying. Would it be
>better to use an alt tag in a single image and none in the others? Or is
>it better to use one large, complex image and use CSS layering to
>achieve the look you want?
>
>Thank you,
>
>Jeff Isom
--
Leonard R. Kasday, Ph.D.
Institute on Disabilities/UAP and Dept. of Electrical Engineering at Temple
University
(215) 204-2247 (voice) (800) 750-7428 (TTY)
http://astro.temple.edu/~kasday mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Chair, W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Evaluation and Repair Tools Group
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/
The WAVE web page accessibility evaluation assistant:
http://www.temple.edu/inst_disabilities/piat/wave/