WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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RE: evaluating Web accessibility software

for

From: Jon Gunderson
Date: Jul 28, 2003 7:01AM

Jim,
The users ability to style ALT text renderings in Netscape 6.x+ and
Internet Explorer is minimal, making ALT text unusable to many people with
visual impairments, requiring users to use adaptive technology (if
available and they know how to use it). If people are interested in
universal design, then it is easy to avoid the use of AREA (or any images
as links) or to provide redundant text links for the AREA links.

The problem with tool tips from an accessibility perspective is:
1. You need to use the mouse to point, not everyone can use a mouse
2. You need to know where to point, requiring the user to explore images to
see if there is a link. If I am visually impaired I may not have enough
vision to know to explore
3. Most people do not know how to style tool tips
4. Not all browsers support tool tips, therefore some people will not have
access

While you may argue that ALT for AREA is technically accessible in many
cases, I don't believe the use of AREA with only ALT text defined is
functionally accessible to many people with disabilities.

Jon


At 01:29 PM 7/25/2003 -0500, Jim Thatcher wrote:
>Hi Jon,
>
>I was surprised to read that you view Alt on an AREA as an "inaccessible
>technique" - and this apparently because it is not rendered with images off
>in Opera. It is rendered with the mouse over in IE and Netscape 4 (but not
>Netscape 7 or OPERA, apparently) and it is rendered with HPR and the major
>screen readers. Seems to me that that bodes well for the accessibility of
>the technique. There are other html coding techniques that are not realized
>in the visual browser that I think are fundamental to accessibility, like
>the LABEL element, the scope attribute and the header/id combinations, to
>mention a few.
>
>Jim
>508 Web Accessibility Tutorial http://jimthatcher.com/webcourse1.htm.
>"Constructing Accessible Web Sites:" http://jimthatcher.com/news.htm
>
>