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title attribute as substitute for link text

for

From: adam solomon
Date: Dec 5, 2010 5:45AM

Question:
I have an image which displays text and serves as a link to a different
location represented by that image text. Instead of placing an image element
inside the anchor tags and having an alt for the image, I decided for
reasons not specified here to include the image as a background image to the
anchor - and add title text to indicate the purpose of the link. Thus the
html is simply an anchor tage with a background image and a title attribute.
This wcag technique<http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20101014/H33>;
discusses
the issue, and I am not clear 100% if I have failed the success criterion or
not. Jaws 9 reads the title text on the anchor by default, and I am
wondering if the situation discussed in the technique, namely that there is
limited AT support for title attributes, may have improved in the last
year.
In brief: For sighted users there is no problem because they see the image
text. For screen reader users, a test in Jaws 9 works nicely.
(on the other hand, if the image doesn't load for some reason then sighted
users will also have a problem).
What say you? Are we wcag conformed on this one?
Thanks in advance for any responses.

--
adam solomon
linkedin <http://il.linkedin.com/pub/adam-solomon/24/449/a4>;
blogix <http://adam.blogix.co.il/>;