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From: Sam
Date: Mon, Apr 16 2007 6:40PM
Subject: Alt text / alternate image on embed (of Quicktime Video)
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Is there a way to specify either "alt" text or serve an image (with
alt text of course) if a user has not downloaded whatever plugin is
required to view / listen / whatever?

In my case I'm currently using the QT supplied javascript but it just
winds up with a broekn link and no words if the plugin is not
installed.

Thanks, Sam.

From: Keith Parks
Date: Tue, Apr 17 2007 9:20AM
Subject: Re: Alt text / alternate image on embed (of QuicktimeVideo)
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On Apr 16, 2007, at 5:30 PM, Sam wrote:

> Is there a way to specify either "alt" text or serve an image (with
> alt text of course) if a user has not downloaded whatever plugin is
> required to view / listen / whatever?
>
> In my case I'm currently using the QT supplied javascript but it just
> winds up with a broekn link and no words if the plugin is not
> installed.

I think this might be what you are looking for...

<http://blog.deconcept.com/2005/01/26/web-standards-compliant-
javascript-quicktime-detect-and-embed/>

******************************
Keith Parks
Graphic Designer/Web Designer
Student Affairs Communications Services
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA 92182-7444

(619) 594-1046

mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://www.sdsu.edu
http://www.sa.sdsu.edu/communications
----------------------------------------------------------

(Objects on your screen may be closer than they appear)

From: Roberts, Vern
Date: Tue, Apr 17 2007 9:30AM
Subject: Re: Alt text / alternate image on embed (of QuicktimeVideo)
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It's my understanding, in accessibility guidelines, when you're page
opens, do a check to see if the plugin exists and, if not, furnish a
link to the place where the plugin can be downloaded. EXAMPLE: for
javascript, use a hidden value that changes when the page loads, then do
a check of the new value. If it has not changed, javascript is probably
turned off, or possibly an older browser that doesn't do javascript. In
that case you would give instructions on how to enable javascript.

That being said, I'm not sure how to check for specific plugins.

From: Sarah Horton
Date: Tue, Apr 17 2007 9:40AM
Subject: Re: Alt text / alternate image on embed (of QuicktimeVideo)
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--- Sam wrote:
Is there a way to specify either "alt" text or serve an image (with
alt text of course) if a user has not downloaded whatever plugin is
required to view / listen / whatever?
--- end of quote ---

Hi, Sam,
There might be better ways to accomplish this, but here's what I usually do for Quicktime videos. I make a fallback movie (enclosed) and reference it using the "src" attribute, and then reference the video file using the "qtsrc" attribute. Here's the code - note that in this case I reference a SMIL file, but you can reference a movie directly:

<object classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" width="410" height="440" codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
<param name="src" value="fallback.mov" />
<param name="type" value="video/quicktime" />
<param name="qtsrc" value="mlk.smi" />
<param name="autoplay" value="true" />
<param name="controller" value="true" />
<param name="bgcolor" value="white" />
<embed src="fallback.mov" width="410" height="440" autoplay="true" controller="true" pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/" qtsrc="mlk.smi" type="video/quicktime" bgcolor="white"></embed>
</object>

Here's a web site that uses this approach:

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~towardsfreedom/

I'd love to hear how others do this!

HTH,
Sarah

Sarah Horton
Academic Computing
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH USA 03755
www.dartmouth.edu/~shorton

From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Tue, Apr 17 2007 10:30AM
Subject: Re: Alt text / alternate image on embed (of QuicktimeVideo)
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On Tue, 17 Apr 2007, Roberts, Vern wrote:

> It's my understanding, in accessibility guidelines, when you're page
> opens, do a check to see if the plugin exists and, if not, furnish a
> link to the place where the plugin can be downloaded.

Some guidelines might say such things, but real accessibility is something
different: it means being prepared to situation where the plugin is not
and will not be available or, more appropriately, _no_ support for some
special kind of media or software is available.

A link to a plugin would be just lip service to accessibility. Finding a
plugin on the net is surely not the key question, especially from the
accessibility point of view.

The correct approach is to make the _content_ accessible in a more robust,
more widely supported format, at least as alternative to some special
format that requires special support.

In theory, you can use the content of an <object> element to specify
fallback for the embedded content. You could even have nested <object>
elements for different levels of fallback. Browsers have spoiled this idea
with their lousy implementations for <object>.

Thus, what remains is that you should include the alternate presentation
or a link to it as normal page content. For example, if you have a
presentation embedded using <object> or <embed>, you could put a short
note about the situation before the embedding area. This means referring
to technicalities, but this cannot be avoided if you want to be
accessible.

For example, you could have text like the following:

<p>The system is illustrated by the animation below. There is also
<a href="explain.html">a textual description</a> of the system,
presenting the same basic features.</p>

(Of course the textual description may have static images, too, in a
well-planned manner.)

--
Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/