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Re: Inline Images and ALT text

for

From: Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis
Date: Jan 13, 2009 2:55PM

On 13/1/09 21:09, Janet Sylvia wrote:
> Is there a standard for embedding images in paragraphs? For instance, only embed images before/after sentences, with contextual clues, etc.

The visual positioning (controlled by CSS) can be anything.

The markup/DOM position is determined entirely by the alternative text.
Ignore the image and ask if the alternative text makes sense in situ.

> Also, if the image is described in the adjacent text, would the ALT text for the image be null?

That can be a somewhat controversial topic.

If the image is a control (e.g. a button or link) and the alternative
text is the only source of text for the control, then it's generally
agreed the "alt" attribute should describe the action or destination of
the control.

If the image is important in its own right (e.g. a graph), I believe
it's sometimes useful to provide a short "alt" text to distinguish it
from all the other images on the page and allow them to manipulate (e.g.
download, link to) the image. Others argue that such use-cases are rare
and it's more important to exclude repetitive information.

Otherwise, go with "alt='".

For further reading see the guidance I've bookmarked at:

http://delicious.com/benjaminhawkeslewis/%28X%29HTML%3Aalt+guidance

--
Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis