WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

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

for

From: Kynn Bartlett
Date: Aug 20, 2002 9:55AM


At 8:36 AM +0200 8/20/02, Steve Vosloo wrote:
> 3. Keeping that in mind, one could conceivably set the alt text
> to alt="Back to HWG homepage" -- this is a less than optimal
> solution, though, because while it identifies the link
>function,
> it's not really valid alt text. The "Back to HWG homepage"
> text belongs in the title attribute of the link.
>
>I've seen this kind of comment before. Is there a general rule about
>verbs in ALT tags? For the ALTs on all my images that are links I start
>with "Link to ..." Is this wrong? If a logo links you back to the
>homepage, then the function of that image is just that -- so why not
>describe it as such in the ALT attribute?

In my opinion it's a stylistic question, and there is a "technically
correct" answer. The technically correct answer is that you are doing
it wrong; the <img> tag should contain attributes which apply to the
image, not the <a> link surrounding it.

In practice this probably isn't a huge problem, and may increase the
usability of your link in fact.

--Kynn

--
Kynn Bartlett < <EMAIL REMOVED> > http://kynn.com
Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain http://idyllmtn.com
Next Book: Teach Yourself CSS in 24 http://cssin24hours.com
Kynn on Web Accessibility ->> http://kynn.com/+sitepoint


----
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/