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Re: Investigating the proposed alt attributerecommendations in HTML 5

for

From: Gez Lemon
Date: Aug 30, 2007 9:50AM

Hi Tim,

On 30/08/2007, Tim Beadle < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> On 30/08/2007, Stephanie Sullivan < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> > Maybe I'm misunderstanding what
> > cases exist where the alt becomes a negative attribute?
>
> When keen but ill-informed developers add alt="This is the ACME, Inc.
> logo, a picture of a Stork" instead of just alt="ACME, Inc."? Or they
> repeat information about the image that is nearby in the text anyway.
>
> Having alt as a required attribute doesn't in any way guarantee
> quality, useful alt text.

It doesn't guarantee quality useful alternate text, but the answer is
not to make alternate text optional. The real issue is ensuring that
tool vendors should make it easier for their users to provide
alternate text, and educate users as to what makes good alternate
text. Making the alt attribute doesn't solve either of those issues.


Gez


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