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Re: coding attributes for image links

for

From: Christophe Strobbe
Date: May 6, 2009 2:35AM

Hi,

At 22:31 5/05/2009, Jared Smith wrote:
>(...) Just remember that title typically is not read by
>screen readers, but it *could* be read, so it's a good idea to keep
>that advisory information succinct.

As far as I know, the title attribute is not accessible to keyboard
users, unless they happen to use a screen reader that is configured
to read the title attribute.


>IE shows alt text in a tooltip. It shouldn't. This is a misapplication
>of alt text. (...)

There is actually no evidence in the HTML 4.01 specification that
displaying the alt attribute as a tooltip is a violation or a
"misapplication". See
<http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/struct/objects.html#adef-alt>;.
If you want to bash IE for displaying alt as a tooltip, you'll have
to find rationale outside the spec. I've never seen any arguments
that go beyond "the other browsers don't do it". In fact, there are
even people who defend this behaviour because it has advantages for
certain low-vision users. (I don't have pointers, sorry.)

Best regards,

Christophe


--
Christophe Strobbe
K.U.Leuven - Dept. of Electrical Engineering - SCD
Research Group on Document Architectures
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