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Re: FW: Complication of the alt text issue

for

From: Kristin Evenson Hirst
Date: Mar 12, 2002 5:40PM

Actually, you might want to simplify the redesign by figuring out how to
suggest layout without repeatedly using spacer.gif -- that appears to be
what you're assigning the verbose ALT text to. Why not just use the text
"Products & services " as a link to
http://www.usability.uk.com/products.htm ? And use at least one whole word
as a link -- don't make me focus and click on just the first letter or a
preceding number.

You also don't need *three* identical links to an external stylesheet (and
with a good stylesheet you won't need all those font color tags).


At 10:48 PM 3/12/02 +0000, you wrote:
>Dear All,
>
>I'm having difficulties trying to help a colleague solve the thorny issue of
>what to put on Alt tags as part of a massive redesign to make our Company
>site ultra accessible. I've seen this issue discussed countless times and
>thought it was all clear and simple, but not so! Please see the email below.
>Basically, we can't decide on the appropriate level of detail to include,
>especially as we want to show the keyboard short cuts in the Alt tags as
>well. I'd appreciate any comments you might have.
>
>The url to the site is www.usabilitybydesign.com
>Many thanks in advance.
>Lisa
>
>Lisa Halabi
>Senior Usability & Accessibility Consultant
>Events Coordinator - UK Usability Professionals Assoc.
>www.usabilitybydesign.com
>Email: <EMAIL REMOVED>
>Tel: +44 (0)7956 280 447
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Gary Bunker
>Sent: 12 March 2002 15:16
>To: Lisa Halabi
>Cc: Paul Chandler
>Subject: Complication of the alt text issue
>
>
>Lisa,
>
>a slight complication.
>
>To sum up, current alt text is in a long form, explaining what can be found.
>For example for the products/services button it is "Details on the products
>and services we offer, and what they can do for you"
>
>Problem being that they don't provide the actual name of the button
>(products and services) and are quite long, so that blind users have to
>listen to the entire alt text and then decide which section they are
>navigating to.
>
>Your initial proposal was to shorten them to just the name of the section,
>i.e. "Products and services" - however that makes it easier to listen to but
>provides no feedback on the content of the section being visited.
>
>We had come to an agreement that the best approach is to shorten the alt
>text to something like "Products: For usability products and services" -
>short enough not to be too annoying to blind users but long enough to
>provide some hint to sighted users of the content to be found.
>
>However, we also currently use the alt text to explain to blind users that a
>quick key is available. So the current alt text is actually
>"Details on the products and services we offer, and what they can do for
>you.
>
>Alt + 'P' to select"
>
>Obviously if we go with the solution we just proposed we lose the shortcut
>key information - making it much harder for both sighted and visually
>impaired users to learn those shortcuts.
>
>Any suggestions?
>
>
>
>
>----
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