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Re: Alt Text

for

From: John Foliot
Date: Feb 25, 2010 12:54PM

Bevi Chagnon | PubCom wrote:
>
> From my research and testing, I've found that a quick identifier in the
> ALT
> text helps a) quickly convey the information to the user, and b) reduces
> the
> number of words I need to use.
> Some examples.
> Photo: sunset in Rocky Mountain forest.
> Logo: U.S. Forest Service.
> Pie chart: Number of blue widgets sold in 2009, by sales quarter. (This
> sample would also get a longdesc attribute to provide the chart's
> details.)

I would echo agreement with Bevi's 'pattern' here, and have suggested it
in the past as a best practices guideline. Additionally, I 'wrap' the alt
text in [square brackets], for times when images might be disabled for
sighted users, and the image 'interrupts' or skews text flow (or might
seem redundant to some users). For example:

[Photo: Jared Smith] Jared Smith is the Director of WebAIM...

As opposed to:

Jared Smith Jared Smith is the Director of WebAIM...

Just a suggestion however.


> I use a colon to separate the identifier from the text so that it pauses
> the
> screen reader for blind users, and also makes grammatical sense to
> sighted users.

Yup, some common identifiers I use are: [Photo: ], [Icon: ], [Graphic:
], [Chart: ], etc.

JF