WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: change of language inside an text equivalent

for

From: John Foliot - WATS.ca
Date: Mar 7, 2005 10:13PM

zara wrote:
>
> I had thought of using span but was told that I could not
> insert it into the
> attribute of another tag... (rough translation, I hope I am clear)

No, this is correct, you could not insert the inside of the alt="";
this is invalid code.

>
> So, if I understand you correctly, it will be present on the
> page and not
> only in the alt text ?

Correct. Instead of using the alt attribute (which I left at alt=""), I
have suggested moving the alternative text outside of the actual image
element and display it as actual screen text. (The alt text is left blank,
or rather null, so that we don't have redundantly redundant text "read out"
by screen readers.) I wrapped a around it to keep the two items
"grouped".

The WCAG does not specifically say that an image's alternative text *MUST*
be in the alt attribute, only that it can be. In fact it says:

"Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element (e.g., via
"alt", "longdesc", or in element content)." The techniques section further
elaborates: "Use "alt" for the IMG, INPUT, and APPLET elements, or provide a
text equivalent in the content of the OBJECT and APPLET elements."

....and so, I am suggesting that having the text and image enclosed within
the a) creates the association, b) provides the "equivalency", but c)
also neatly addresses you language problem. I suppose in theory you could
(should) use the tag (which would be semantically correct and also
valid in XHTML strict), but it might not produce even results in legacy
browsers:




Photo du
siége social de la Montreal Thieves Guild




>
>
>> There is no valid method of declaring multiple languages in the ALT
>> attribute.
>
> Well, that is certainly something to think about...
>

Cheers!

JF
--
John Foliot <EMAIL REMOVED>
Web Accessibility Specialist / Co-founder of WATS.ca
Web Accessibility Testing and Services
http://www.wats.ca 1.866.932.4878 (North America)