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Re: A question about ALT attributes

for

From: Vlad Alexander (XStandard)
Date: Nov 14, 2010 10:51PM

Hi Kerry,

The images in question are part of an unordered list. There are two problems with this markup that affect how the images are used and therefore the alt text.

1. You would typically want to group items together into a list that are for a given purpose. The images and other list items in the list in question serve different purposes.

2. The first list item contains an image and a hyperlink. The alt text does not make sense next to the adjacent hyperlink text. For example: Drink or drive - It's really that simple Privacy

A better way to organize the footer (keeping the same visual layout) would be like this:

<div>
<p>
<img ... />
</p>
<ul>
...
</ul>
<p>
<img ... />
</p>
</div>

Take care,
-Vlad
http://xstandard.com

----- Original Message -----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Sent: 2010-11-14T14:14:32
Subject: [WebAIM] A question about ALT attributes



Australian Governments are in the process of planning how to achieve compliance with WCAG 2.0, so there's a flurry of training sessions going on so that we can assess the size of the task.

I went to one last week and am thinking more about various aspects of accessibility, including the humble ALT attribute.

Take the example of http://www.transport.act.gov.au/current_projects.html

At the foot of the page, there are two images promoting Road Safety campaigns. They don't link to anything, so I was inclined to say that they are purely decorative and therefore should have alt="". But then, they're promoting safety campaigns, so maybe they should have ALT text to provide a little extra promotion.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Kerry
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