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Re: Hiding Legends

for

From: Dean Hamack
Date: Oct 15, 2008 8:20PM

On 10/15/08 6:46 PM, "Jared Smith" < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> There are several other instances of this, with accompanying code, at
> http://webaim.org/techniques/forms/controls.php

Thanks, I'll check that out.

> Am I understanding correctly that you are simply doing an image
> replacement for a graphical label? In other words, you have a graphic
> from the design people that you're trying to put into the label? If
> this is the case, why not just put the image in the legend and give it
> appropriate alt text?

Argh, absolutely not!

Images should ONLY be hardcoded into the page when they are part of the
content, such as a profile photo, a photo in a person's gallery, etc. When
you hardcode images into the page you:

A) lose the ability to use image sprites and thereby increase the number of
images in your site and your load time

B) lose the ability to tailor your site for print media or mobile devices

C) dramatically increase the amount of time it takes to change the look and
feel of your site at a later date

These are not issues with most small sites. But when you work on massive
fortune 500 company sites as I often do, it's a big issue. I use as few
images as possible and CSS for almost everything.