WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

RE: Using Brackets around ALT text (Re: Is "this-or-that logo" adequate in an ALT text?)

for

From: Jim Thatcher
Date: Aug 20, 2002 3:24PM

John,

I was about to reply that it isn't good or bad, that I don't like adding the
brackets, that it was a matter of style. But that statement only holds for
images that are not links. When they are links, then the first letter access
in a list of links doesn't work with the brackets ... does it?

Jim
Accessibility Consulting
http://jimthatcher.com
512-306-0931
Evaluation of web evaluation tools at http://jimthatcher.com/erx.htm


-----Original Message-----
From: John Foliot - bytown internet [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 4:28 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: RE: Using Brackets around ALT text (Re: Is "this-or-that logo"
adequate in an ALT text?)


OK Jim, but is this *good* or *bad*? Most users of HPR don't read it, they
hear it, and as you have noted screen readers *generally* don't read out
loud the square brackets.

What I suggest replicates what HPR does for written output - enclose alt
text in a container which differentiates it's content from other text which
may surround the image (in fact, that's where I got the idea). Is [[image
alt]] annoying, intrusive, or cause problems for assistive technologies and
their users? Seems not.

JF

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Thatcher [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
> Sent: August 20, 2002 12:24 PM
> To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> Subject: RE: Using Brackets around ALT text (Re: Is "this-or-that logo"
> adequate in an ALT text?)
>
>
> When you use [ ] around the alt text, it will appear as [[alt
> text content]]
> in the IBM Home Page Reader text view because HPR uses those
> square brackets
> in its text view to visually set image information from other text.
>
> Luckily screen readers don't normally speak those brackets.
>
> Jim
> Accessibility Consulting
> http://jimthatcher.com
> 512-306-0931
> Evaluation of web evaluation tools at http://jimthatcher.com/erx.htm


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


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