WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: A larger discussion (was RE: Inline Images and ALT text)

for

From: J. B-Vincent
Date: Jan 16, 2009 9:55AM

A modest proposal...

What if there were a way for users to specify how they wanted to perceive ALT attributes, possibly at first through screen reader settings (similar to how screen reader users can set levels for how much punctuation they want to hear) and eventually through the browser. Levels might include:

* None--the user perceives no ALT attributes; good for screen reader users who want to move through pages as fast as possible.

* Some--the user perceives non-null ALT attributes; good for anyone who wants a sense of graphics location and content within the page.

* All--the user perceives all ALT attributes; good for sighted users with low bandwidth who might deal with a lot of pages that have info-bearing pictures such as charts.

The latter two levels might assign an automatic null value for any graphics that omit the ALT attribute.

At an even higher level, users might be able to mark preferences for specific sites. For example, screen reader users could set a news site to "none" but an online learning site to "all."

There would still need to be website designer awareness on how to write good ALT attributes, but this capability could give _all_ users more control over page presentation regardless of designers' awareness or choices.

--Jane

*****

Jane Vincent
Accessibility/Usability Manager
Center for Accessible Technology
Berkeley, CA


--- On Thu, 1/15/09, Oliver Boermans < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
From: Oliver Boermans < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] A larger discussion (was RE: Inline Images and ALT text)
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Date: Thursday, January 15, 2009, 2:25 AM

Thanks for the interesting discussion people!

As one of those learning lurkers [thanks John], I'd like to put
forward a design/communication principal which may have some bearing
on ensuring content is accessible and interesting.

With an idea to express, the most effective combination of text and
image is one where the visual and verbal elements work together. An
images with a caption that seems to restate the apparent content of
the image is boring alongside one that has a caption that tells us
something more. The viewers is involved by connecting the two. Having
a little gap is what keeps us engaged.

When the image is not visible it is important to consider what is
missing from the message as a result. I believe it is the role of the
alt text to at least attempt to adopt the role of the image in the
communication.

With a different hat on, it is easy for me to imagine scenarios where
having some such redundancy within the alt text of an image would be
beneficial. Placing an image on a public webpage is also placing an
image on the web. A web increasingly read by machines at some point
before we are presented with it. Simplest example is Google images
which works best when the information within the alt text clearly
labels the content of the image.

Mark me as somewhere in the middle – it's a balancing act.

--
Oliver Boermans
Communication designer
http://www.ollicle.com
--