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RE: Blank alt

for

From: Jim Thatcher
Date: Oct 24, 2002 11:54AM


There is also logic involved. Alt="" (no space) is empty alt text, null alt
text, no information. That is what should be used for images that carry no
information.

Alt=" " (one space) is ... well one space. It is neither null nor empty. It
should never be used. If any tool complains about alt="" it is the tools
problem! The browser is not, in my opinion, dumb (in this case). It is
correctly displaying the alt text consisting of one space.

Jim
Accessibility Consulting
http://jimthatcher.com
512-306-0931
508 Web accessibility Tutorial: http://jimthatcher.com/webcourse1.htm


-----Original Message-----
From: Timothy J. Luoma [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Thursday, October 24, 2002 1:16 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: Re: Blank alt


<EMAIL REMOVED> wrote:
> Howdy;
>
> Is there a hard and fast rule for using alt="" (without the space), and
alt
> =" " (with a space)?

None that I am aware of, although there are folks who advocate for both.

> I've seen both. What are the specific differences?

Sometimes the validator (Bobby?) will complain about alt="" but not
about alt=" "

Some dumb browsers, not mentioning any names, will pop up an empty
tooltip if you use alt=" " although this can sometimes be alleviated by
using a title="Whatever"

TjL

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