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Re: Question about image in the alt attribute

for

From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Jul 31, 2014 2:30AM

2014-07-31 10:56, Olaf Drümmer wrote:

> On 31 Jul 2014, at 06:56, "Jukka K. Korpela" < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
>> That's not what the alt attribute is for. It is to be presented when the image is not displayed. It is ALTernative.
>
> I think you are misunderstanding something here. It is never about what is presented, it is always about what can be perceived. Furthermore supporting more than one channel (e.g. text to speech plus visual display) in the very same moment can be very useful. All this is not about "either or", it is about options (a minimal set of options, more is always OK), and each user should have mechanisms available to make use of these options in any fashion and combination.

"For user agents that cannot display images, forms, or applets, this
attribute specifies alternate text."
http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/objects.html#adef-alt

"alt - Replacement text for use when images are not available"
http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/embedded-content-0.html#attr-img-alt

The alt attribute has a job to do (to act as a replacement for an
image). Trying to make it handle other affairs as well, no matter how
relevant they might be in some contexts, disturbs it in doing its job.

Yucca