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Re: WCAG

for

From: Geof Collis
Date: Mar 2, 2010 2:00PM

I reserve the right to be absurd then.

cheers

Geof

At 02:54 PM 3/2/2010, you wrote:
>On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 12:34 PM, Geof Collis < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> > I think I'll go with it as it sounds correct to me. I've always
> > understood that 150 characters was the max
>
>You're missing the point entirely. There is no max!!! Setting any
>value to alternative text length will be entirely arbitrary. It would
>be like saying any book of fiction over 150 pages is automatically a
>novel and everything less is a short story. Absurd!
>
>Alternative text should convey the content and function of an image,
>and do so accurately and succinctly. Some images necessitate very long
>alternative text. Most require a word or two. I think 100 characters
>is a good threshold at which one should determine whether the
>alternative for an image can adequately be conveyed through the alt
>attribute. In some cases, this will be perfectly appropriate - maybe
>even at 1000 or even 10000 characters (especially for images that
>present lots of text). But in most cases, the fact that the alt value
>is naturally becoming lengthy is an indication that the alternative
>might be better presented in some other way, such as in adjacent text
>or another page via link and (optionally) the longdesc attribute.
>
>Jared
>