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RE: Is "this-or-that logo" adequate in an ALT text?

for

From: Steve Vosloo
Date: Aug 20, 2002 8:08AM

Not a bad idea ... the downside is communicating these things to the
user. It would have to be explained immediately and very clearly --
probably on the Accessibility site of a page, which would need to be
linked to from every page.

The explanation consideration is more usability and accessibility, but
vitally important.



-----Original Message-----
From: Leo Smith [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: 20 August 2002 04:13 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: RE: Is "this-or-that logo" adequate in an ALT text?


I think this is a useful idea - that is, when the ALT text is not a
complete replacement for the image, but rather expresses the _idea_ of
the graphic or image, then placing it in [ ] in this case might be a
good way to differentiate between these two scenarios.

Therefore, in the case of a logo that graphically displays the following
text: Some Company

then a possible solution is alt="Some Company [logo]"

Here, the literal information displayed by the image is not within the
square parentheses; the descriptive, idea conveying information is.

What do others think about this?

leo.

> There's probably no official recommendation to use them. Sometimes
> brackets are recommended when there is a sequence of images (e.g., a
> navbar) in order to make the ALT texts appear as separate instead of
> running together. What I suggested is more of a logical move, and
> something that people have used, often intuitively. When alt="zap"
> says 'use the text string zap in place of this image', then what would
> you do when zap is not an adequate replacement for the image, only a
> description of it? Using brackets or parentheses sounds rather
> natural.
>


Consider the text "[Schroedinger's equation]". To me, this would
> communicate the idea that this is refers to an image that actually
> shows the equation. Without the brackets, how could I know, without
> knowing that the text is an ALT text for an image, that the document
> actually contains the equation instead of just mentioning it? Sorry
> that I can't explain this better. What I'm trying to say might be
> this: Good use of ALT texts should make the document completely
> understandable in no-images mode without knowing or guessing that some
> texts are actually ALT texts for images. Using descriptive texts as
> such does not satisfy this.
>
> --
> J

Leo Smith

Web Designer/Developer

USM Office of Publications and