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RE: Length of Alt Tags

for

From: Jim Thatcher
Date: Dec 10, 2002 10:44PM

Rachel,

The issue can be phrased as what would you like to listen to ... when you
must listen to everything? I think both 64 and 50 characters are on the long
end especially when the alt text replaces a few characters of text in the
image. By placing very short alt text on images you contribute to a
comfortable experience for someone who is listening to the page. If you
would like a longer informative mouse-over in IE, a title attribute will
provide that. And long descriptions are required if you are providing a text
equivalent for a chart or graph.

I hope that listening to the page with, say, HPR (the simplest) will
convince you that the shorter text works.

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