WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

RE: Blank alt

for

From: Jukka Korpela
Date: Oct 24, 2002 11:30PM

Jim Thatcher wrote:

> There is also logic involved. Alt="" (no space) is empty alt
> text, - -
> Alt=" " (one space) is ... well one space.

Exactly. In other words, alt="" says that the textual equivalent to the
image is an empty string, i.e. nothing should appear in place of the image,
whereas alt=" " says that a string consisting of one space is the textual
equivalent.

> It is neither null nor empty. It should never be used.

Never say "never".

Suppose you're given the task of fixing a page that uses a spacer image to
create a gap of specific width between two words and has no alt attribute
for the image. Suppose you're not allowed to do anything but add an alt
attribute; maybe it's a piece of poetry that must not be otherwise touched
by mortals. Wouldn't you use alt=" " to make the words have _some_ spacing
between them?

(Well, maybe e.g. alt="   " would work better.)

> If any tool complains about alt="" it is the tools problem!

Right. Silencing a "validator" with something unnatural (like alt="empty")
would surely create problems. Browsers are a more serious issue, but I would
not recommend using e.g. alt=" " just to cope with a browser that does not
treat alt="" correctly, since then there would be problems with other
browsers than deal with it properly.

--
Jukka Korpela, senior adviser
TIEKE Finnish Information Society Development Centre
http://www.tieke.fi/
Diffuse Business Guide to Web Accessibility and Design for All:
http://www.diffuse.org/accessibility.html


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