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Thread: CSS content property and empty image alt values

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From: steven
Date: Thu, Dec 09 2010 4:12AM
Subject: CSS content property and empty image alt values
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Is anybody familiar with screen reader support (or intentional lack of
support) for the CSS 'content' property?

I ask because I know that images generated by HTML markup are known to be
read by screen readers, but I am thinking if CSS content itself is not read,
then there can often be cases where presentational imagery serves no place
in the HTML DOM and in such cases, would be better than serving images with
empty alt values.

What are peoples thoughts and experience on this.

Regards,

Steven

From: Chris Hoffman
Date: Thu, Dec 09 2010 8:00AM
Subject: Re: CSS content property and empty image alt values
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Hi Steven,

According to a blog post from The Filament Group (http://filamentgroup.com/lab/dingbat_webfonts_accessibility_issues/), VoiceOver reads generated CSS content. The implication is that other screenreaders generally do not.

I don't quite understand how that relates to presentational imagery, though. Could you explain?

Chris



On Dec 9, 2010, at 6:11 AM, "steven" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> Is anybody familiar with screen reader support (or intentional lack of
> support) for the CSS 'content' property?
>
> I ask because I know that images generated by HTML markup are known to be
> read by screen readers, but I am thinking if CSS content itself is not read,
> then there can often be cases where presentational imagery serves no place
> in the HTML DOM and in such cases, would be better than serving images with
> empty alt values.
>
> What are peoples thoughts and experience on this.
>
> Regards,
>
> Steven
>
>

From: Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis
Date: Thu, Dec 09 2010 10:12AM
Subject: Re: CSS content property and empty image alt values
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On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 11:11 AM, steven < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Is anybody familiar with screen reader support (or intentional lack of
> support) for the CSS 'content' property?
>
> I ask because I know that images generated by HTML markup are known to be
> read by screen readers, but I am thinking if CSS content itself is not read,
> then there can often be cases where presentational imagery serves no place
> in the HTML DOM and in such cases, would be better than serving images with
> empty alt values.
>
> What are peoples thoughts and experience on this.

See thread on www-style:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/www-style-thread-on-content

Summary:

It is not safe to use 'content' for decorative text, and it is not
safe to use 'content' for informative text, so use images for
decorative text and text for informative text.

Hope that helps.

--
Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis