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Re: Bi-lingual alt-text

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From: Christian Heilmann
Date: Jun 30, 2005 8:22AM

> HI Just a query.
>
> I'm involved in producing a bi-lingual website for a community group, in
> English and Welsh.
> When it comes to the Welsh part of the site, in which language should I
> put write the alt text for pictures.

What is the language of the rest of the page? Alternative text is like
normal text, using an other language will just confuse people.

> Obviously to keep it PC I should put them in Welsh in line with the rest
> of the language on that page, however what is the point if a screen
> reader can only work in English?

Who claimed that it only works in English? You can set your screen
reader to different languages, I don't know if there is a Welsh/Gaelic
language pack, but my guess is that a Welsh user will have it if it
there is one. How would a screen reader read the rest of the page?
Alternative text is no magic hidden trick, it is part of the rendered
content just like the other content is.

> Has anyone got any experience of producing bi lingual websites with alt
> tags.

On all our international sites we kept the alternative text (there is
no alt tag, please, for the love of all that is lovable everybody stop
talking about alt tags) in the language of the main document - it is
part of the CMS entry form - and didn't run into any problem so far.

--
Chris Heilmann
Blog: http://www.wait-till-i.com
Writing: http://icant.co.uk/
Binaries: http://www.onlinetools.org/