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Thread: alt tags on many images
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From: FOX, Jake
Date: Thu, Mar 04 2004 7:16AM
Subject: alt tags on many images
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Hi guys,
We are currently building a huge news archive which has around 1,200 pages.
Each page has a photographic image (some of which are quite abstract).
Currently none of these images contain alt tags. It would be an enormous
effort to go through each page individually and assign a descriptive alt tag
to every image - is there a way round this problem?
Please help out because we're really struggling with this one!
I look forward to hearing your suggestions.
THANKS
-Jake.
--------------------------------
Jake Fox
Web Analyst
Group Web Solutions
Norwich Union
Floor 3 - East Wing
Sentinel House
37 Surrey Street
Norwich
Norfolk
NR1 2UZ
Tel: +44 (0)1603 686333
Fax: +44 (0)1603 840618
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intranet: http://websolutions.intra.norwich-union.com
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From: julian.rickards@ndm.gov.on.ca
Date: Thu, Mar 04 2004 7:45AM
Subject: RE: alt tags on many images
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: FOX, Jake
> We are currently building a huge news archive which has
> around 1,200 pages.
> Each page has a photographic image (some of which are quite abstract).
> Currently none of these images contain alt tags. It would be
> an enormous
> effort to go through each page individually and assign a
> descriptive alt tag
> to every image - is there a way round this problem?
You are not going to like what I have to say but it probably has to be said.
If these photos actually add content to the page, then they must have alt
text. In fact, (I only recently learned this) alt is a *required* attribute
of the <img> tag and it should have been used right from the outset.
Perhaps you could hire a young web developer from college or a tech school
to get some experience and a short term job to assist you.
---------------------------------------------------------
Julian Rickards
Digital Publications Distribution Coordinator
Publications Services Section
Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines
Phone: (705) 670-5608
Fax: (705) 670-5690
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From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Thu, Mar 04 2004 8:17AM
Subject: RE: alt tags on many images
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On Thu, 4 Mar 2004 = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = wrote:
> If these photos actually add content to the page, then they must have alt
> text. In fact, (I only recently learned this) alt is a *required* attribute
> of the <img> tag and it should have been used right from the outset.
By HTML specifications, alt attributes are indeed obligatory - whether the
image adds content or not. (If it doesn't, alt="" is usually suitable.)
But what the alt attribute contains is a different issue. The question
used the expression "descriptive alt tag", but the purpose of an alt
attribute is to act as a _replacement_ for an image. For a long treatise
on alt attributes, see http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/html/alt.html
The question is how to make the page work the best possible way when the
image is not seen. It is of little value to explain what's in an image
that the user does not. It's not completely pointless, since if the
description makes the image interesting, he could ask someone explain the
image in more detail - or could download the image, if the reason for not
seeing it is that the browser has been instructed not to use images for
efficiency reasons.
In a news archive, where the image is a photo that illustrates the event
described in the text, I would consider using just alt="[news photo]"
(or alt="(news photo)" or alt="news photo" - this is a matter of style).
Typically the photos _illustrate_ the text and do not contain such
additional information that could reasonably be described in words
--
Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/
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From: Larry G. Hull
Date: Thu, Mar 04 2004 8:57AM
Subject: RE: alt tags on many images
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Jake,
You or the "young web developer from college or a tech school" (or
perhaps an intern?) need to remember that the text itself should be
short, descriptive, and not necessarily replicate the title or a
piece of text near the image. The repetition can be annoying.
Digression
I recently saw a page where the text title for the image was repeated
as the alt text but with square brackets added to distinguish it from
the visible text when read by assistive technolgy, i.e.,
alt="[title]". Is this an acceptable convention?
End Digression
Don't overlook the possibility that, depending upon context and
purpose, the content of the image may need to be more precisely
described with a long description using the longdesc attribute
(and/or a D-tag).
Larry
Permanent email address: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Business address: NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center
Code 588.0
Greenbelt, MD 20771
Lead, Information Systems Division Technology Intelligence Center (TIC)
Accessibility Engineer, Advanced Architectures and Automation Branch
Instructor, NASA/GSFC Section 508 Accessibility Training
At 9:34 AM -0500 3/4/04, = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
>> From: FOX, Jake
>
>> We are currently building a huge news archive which has
>> around 1,200 pages.
>> Each page has a photographic image (some of which are quite abstract).
>> Currently none of these images contain alt tags. It would be
>> an enormous
>> effort to go through each page individually and assign a
>> descriptive alt tag
>> to every image - is there a way round this problem?
>
>You are not going to like what I have to say but it probably has to be said.
>If these photos actually add content to the page, then they must have alt
>text. In fact, (I only recently learned this) alt is a *required* attribute
>of the <img> tag and it should have been used right from the outset.
>
>Perhaps you could hire a young web developer from college or a tech school
>to get some experience and a short term job to assist you.
--
Permanent email address: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Business address: NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center
Code 588.0
Greenbelt, MD 20771
FAX: 301-286-1768
Lead, Information Systems Division Technology Intelligence Center (TIC)
Accessibility Engineer, Advanced Architectures and Automation Branch
Instructor, NASA/GSFC Section 508 Accessibility Training
http://ohrcoursecatalog.gsfc.nasa.gov/search/description.cfm?course=88
http://ohrcoursecatalog.gsfc.nasa.gov/search/description.cfm?course=1160 (NEW)
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