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

for

From: John Foliot
Date: Jan 16, 2009 3:45PM

Jared Smith wrote:
>
> Yes, you may find screen reader (or other) users that would want to
> hear or see "Jared Smith. Photo of Jared Smith.", but I think this is
> the exception rather than the norm.

In the context of this debate/discussion, two respondents have opined that
having the value of the alt text in this particular situation have a value
greater than _null_ is the preferred option. Léonie Watson (a
self-identified screen reader user) noted that alt values helped her
"visualize" the page, and would appreciate knowing that "Photo - Jared
Smith" existed. Randall Pope provided anecdotal evidence that he has "...
been asked by screen readers numerous times to check a website's image
only to find it was being use for decorated purpose..." (thus alt=""
introduces ambiguity) and conversely none have suggested that in this
example not being signaled that your photo exists is the preference.

So while we anxiously await the results of your poll (and I am *not* being
facetious, I really welcome this kind of quantifiable data - we need more
of it), our extremely small straw poll suggests that perhaps you may be
mistaken here.

> In short, you have to weigh the
> possible advantage of identifying the presence of the image with the
> possible disadvantage of redundancy and over-burdening the user with
> information. For me, the disadvantages outweigh the potential
> advantage.

I suppose then my friend that at the end of the day we will continue to
agree to disagree. I believe that your judgment regarding the
disadvantage of redundancy vs. signaling the presence of the image is
over-rated, but at the end of the day it really comes down to individual
users - I'm sure if we searched hard enough we could both find a football
team's worth of users that lined up on either side of the discussion. If
nothing it serves to prove that real web accessibility is often
subjective, and that serious practitioners need to truly examine specific
details, and use-cases. Often there really is no right or wrong, but only
shades of gray.

Cheers!

JF