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Re: WCAG

for

From: Jared Smith
Date: Mar 2, 2010 11:42AM

On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 10:35 AM, Patrick H. Lauke
< <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> As that's tech specific, it wouldn't be in the guidelines. Look in the
> techniques http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20081211/G94

WCAG 2.0 uses "short text alternative" and "long description"
extensively in the techniques documents, but as far as I know, they
never define either term. I'm unfamiliar with an exact character value
defined or recommended in WCAG 2.0, but I distinctly remember that at
one point the suggestion was "around 100 characters". This is, of
course, a rough guideline - certainly some images should have alt
values that are longer than 100 characters, but I think this is a good
point at which you should seriously consider either making the alt
text more shorter or providing a longer description.

Jared Smith
WebAIM