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Re: Does it valid if image link has null alt text?

for

From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Sep 7, 2010 6:32AM

Unless you have a reason that the text link and the image link need to be separate links, combine them and use null alt on the image:

<a href="registration.php"><img src="register.gif" alt="" />Register</a>

This will eliminate the redundancy of the same text for two links.

This technique speaks to this issue: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG-TECHS/H2.html

Thanks,
AWK

Andrew Kirkpatrick
Group Product Manager, Accessibility
Adobe Systems

<EMAIL REMOVED>
http://twitter.com/awkawk
http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of adam solomon
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 8:55 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Does it valid if image link has null alt text?

I am assuming that the img element is wrapped by an anchor tag. The link
wrapping the image can have a title attribute which would give it meaning
(Jaws reads the title attribute where no text exists). This will eliminate
the need to give a meaningful alt to the image - IOW you may give an empty
alt. However, there is no reason not to make the image a background image in
the css - this is the most accessible and standardized way to do it.

On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 3:46 PM, patrick dunphy < <EMAIL REMOVED> >wrote:

> Do you need 2 links? Id suggest you eliminate your text based link and
> use that as the alt text. In my experience, images that are links
> require alt text as alt="" is meaningless to non sighted users.
>
> Links must make sense out of context - the scenario you describe
> doesn't.
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> Thanks!
> -PD
>
> On 2010-09-07, at 8:28 AM, Jeevan Reddy < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> wrote:
>
> > Hi Friends,
> > Is it valid if image link has null alt text?
> > Scenario: i've a image link and has a text link adjacent to it
> > pointing to
> > the same location.
> > so if i use same text adjacent to that image as alt text, same link
> > be read
> > twice successively.
> > if i use same text as alt text and combined image and text together as
> > single link, it is some what ok, but same text read twice and become
> > redundant.
> > so i useded text and image together and has given null alt text
> > (alt="").
> > here it work well as for as accessibility is concern.
> > Note: the images are not list items and i've couple of links like
> > above in a
> > web page.
> > But my problem is As per SEO every image should have alt text, and
> > links are
> > the main for Google indexing.
> > how does the above scenario effect on SEO?
> > Awaiting your reply.
> > Thanks and Regards,
> > Jeevan.
> >