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Re: Define or Caption the Photos

for

From: Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis
Date: Nov 25, 2008 12:55AM

<EMAIL REMOVED> wrote:
> I use the definition list to caption still photos. For example:
>
> <dl>
> <dt>(Image)</dt>
> <dd> (Photo description)</dd>
> </dl>
>
> Would this be a acceptable way to caption the still photo for the screen readers?

Given how hard it is to design good user agent behavior for the poorly
defined DL element, I'd tend to avoid it except for:

1. Lists of terms and definitions.
2. Dialogs.

Which are both uses blessed explicitly in the HTML4 specification.

I'd go for:

<img alt="{Text equivalent}" src="photo.jpg">
<p>{Caption for people who have read the text equivalent or seen the
image}</p>

See also:

Mark Norman Francis on problems with DL's definition:
http://24ways.org/2007/my-other-christmas-present-is-a-definition-list

Screen reader implementation report for DL:
http://www.webaim.org/discussion/mail_message.php?id=11226

(Note that report preceded the release of Window-Eyes 7 and JAWS 10.)

Draft figure microformat pattern:
http://microformats.org/wiki/figure

--
Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis