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title attributes on <a> and <img> elements

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From: Leo Smith
Date: Nov 1, 2002 8:34AM

I have been experimenting with adding title attributes to <a> and
<img> elements to provide more information to the user.

Such information appears as a tooltip in browsers that support the
title attribute for <img> and <a>.

The concern I have about using title is what will the screen reader
announce? I did some testing with JAWS 4.

It is possible to adjust the software's settings so that it will
announce title attributes on an <a> element: "Speak ALT tag or
title" for text links Verbosity.

However, JAWS will only read the title attribute but *not* the link
text contained in the <a> element, in this case.

In the case of <img> elements, JAWS will speak title attribute
information rather than alt attribute information when both are
included.

For <input> elements, JAWS will announce the ALT text
infomation and not any title attribute information when both are
included in the tag.

Therefore, using title attributes may cause those using JAWS to
miss essential information. In the case of using title attributes for
textual links, I suppose as long as the title information includes
and expands upon the link text, no information is lost, but in the
case of <img> elements, not hearing the ALT text in preference to
the title information may be a real problem.

Have others noticed this behavior, and does anybody have any
suggestions/comments?

Leo.

Leo Smith
Web Designer/Developer
USM Office of Publications and Marketing
University of Southern Maine
207-780-4774


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