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Thread: Background Alt Tag
Number of posts in this thread: 4 (In chronological order)
From: Diane_Bader
Date: Tue, Jun 10 2003 2:34PM
Subject: Background Alt Tag
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One of our webmasters here wants to use a background on her page that has a
picture imbedded on it. One reason is that it loads faster. Is there such
a thing as an alt tag for the background on a website?? How would it be
made accessible? or is this something that cannot be made accessible? I
know that a alt tag can go on a .jpg, etc.
Thanks for your help!
Diane Bader
Department of Transportation
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From: Big John
Date: Tue, Jun 10 2003 2:52PM
Subject: Re: Background Alt Tag
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Diane Bader wrote:
> One of our webmasters here wants to use a background on her page that has a
> picture imbedded on it. One reason is that it loads faster. Is there such
> a thing as an alt tag for the background on a website?? How would it be
> made accessible? or is this something that cannot be made accessible? I
> know that a alt tag can go on a .jpg, etc.
AFAIK, backgrounds can't have an alt, but you could put a tiny version
on the page as an img, and give that an alt (and a 'title' if you want).
If you don't want it to mess up the visuals just make it a transparent
gif. Screen readers will get it just fine.
HTH
Big John
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From: Glenda
Date: Tue, Jun 10 2003 2:59PM
Subject: RE: Background Alt Tag
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Hi Diane,
I would use caution when using a background image. Not only in there the
ALT to consider for those using screen readers, but also text-background
colour contrast. A background image may make the text difficult to read,
particularly by those with visual impairments or learning disabilities.
Just a thought.
Good luck.
Cheers,
Glenda
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Soaring Eagle Communications
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From: Kynn Bartlett
Date: Tue, Jun 10 2003 3:19PM
Subject: Re: Background Alt Tag
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Background graphics should be used only for "decoration" purposes and
thus shouldn't require an alt text. Any information to be provided to
the user needs be to encoded in the HTML document. People can turn off
backgrounds and images, of course.
What makes your webmaster think that background images "load faster"
anyway? I'm trying to understand the context in which she thinks this
is accurate. Can you explain some more?
---Kynn
On Tuesday, June 10, 2003, at 01:32 PM, = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = wrote:
> One of our webmasters here wants to use a background on her page that
> has a
> picture imbedded on it. One reason is that it loads faster. Is there
> such
> a thing as an alt tag for the background on a website?? How would it
> be
> made accessible? or is this something that cannot be made accessible?
> I
> know that a alt tag can go on a .jpg, etc.
--
Kynn Bartlett < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > http://kynn.com
Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain http://idyllmtn.com
Author, CSS in 24 Hours http://cssin24hours.com
Inland Anti-Empire Blog http://blog.kynn.com/iae
Shock & Awe Blog http://blog.kynn.com/shock
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