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Re: Length of Alt Tags

for

From: Rachel
Date: Dec 11, 2002 5:07PM

Thanks to Jim and Jukka for helping me out with this.

As I explained to Jim, the site I'm working on
involves graphical text being used instead of HTML
text for some of the body copy. An alt tag that
repeats exactly what the graphical text says is most
appropriate here - but will often be more than 50
characters.

Jim then told me:

"The alt text should be the text of the image. That
text is limited to 256(maybe 255) characters, and JAWS
used to have its limit at 150, as I remember."

and I find Jukka's comment very hepful:
"So longdesc is never required. Even for complex
content, alt text could provide a complete
equivalent."
...because I do run into situations where a short
description of a chart will suffice; why force someone
to go to another page to read a short description.

(Also thanks to Jukka for the lengthy explanation of
the acronym issues).

Rachel Sengers


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