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Thread: Advice needed ALT text PA stateparks
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From: Leonard D. Kasday
Date: Thu, Sep 07 2000 8:21AM
Subject: Advice needed ALT text PA stateparks
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(If you're also on the wai interest group list, you've already received this. Sorry for the cross posting but I wanted to get a range of opinions so I'm also looking to this group)
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The Pennsylvania State Park Web site has done a really good job on accessibility, I think, and their webmaster, Charlie Miller, want to find out if he can make any further improvements, especially in the ALT text. Please post any comments to the list here.
I've included the web page addresses so you can look at the alt text in context. People using screenreaders or speech browsers of course will simply hear or feel the alt text in context. If you're looking at the page visually, you can pop up the alt text as usual with a the mouse, or see the alt text displayed next to each image using the WAVE (http://www.temple.edu/inst_disabilities/piat/wave/ )
For each image,
what do you think of the current alt text? Is there a different wording you'd suggest? Should some description be moved to another page, and pointed to by a longdesc and/or d-link?
Please keep in mind that this pictures aren't just decorations: they give the surfer information about the state parks.
The home page is
www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/
I'll write the alt text here, though, like I say, it's always best to judge alt text in the context of the actual page
1. "Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources - State Parks"
2. "Trees rise mysteriously through mist at Jacobosburg E. E. Center."
3. ""Motorboat zooms along at Bald Eagle State Park."
4. "Family examines a natural treasure found by stream at Jacobsburg E. E. Center."
5. "A blue ball bounces in place, attracting your attention to the important link."
6. "Go to a page about 2000, the year of Pennsylvania state parks."
7. "CAST: Bobby Approved (v 3.2)"
8. "DCNR Navigation Bar"
This last item is an image map. The areas have alt text for each area:
Search
E-Mail DCNR
DCNR home
Here's some of the alt text on the history page <http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/history/historyearlyyears.htm>;
9. "This black-and-white photo shows Joseph T. Rothrock. His is wearing a black hat. Rothrock has a long white beard and seems to have an outdoors aura about him. "
10. "This black-and-white photo shows an inverted, cone-shaped pavilion. The base of the cone is wide and it peaks at a cupola."
11. "This black-and-white photo shows a dirt road crossing a small dam. In the background, people row small boats."
12. "This black-and-white photo show an early campsite. The spoke wheels on the trailer are the only obvious clue that this is not a modern photo."
13. "This dazzling black-and-white photo bears stark contrast between the forested hillsides in the background and the very flat ground in the foreground with lines of very small trees. In the center of the photo is a light-colored pyramid, the monument to James Buchanan's birthplace."
14. "In this black-and-white photo is a lovely waterfall surrounded by lush vegetation at George W. Childs State Forest Park"
(see the page for more alt text.)
Here are some other pages he'd appreciate input on-- infact, if you'd like to surf around the site and give any sort of advice that would be great.
<http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/history/historyearlyyears.htm>;
<http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/education/ee.htm>;
<http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/recreation/camping.htm>;
Thanks in advance!
--
Leonard R. Kasday, Ph.D.
Institute on Disabilities/UAP and Dept. of Electrical Engineering at Temple University
(215) 204-2247 (voice) (800) 750-7428 (TTY)
http://astro.temple.edu/~kasday mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Chair, W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Evaluation and Repair Tools Group
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/
The WAVE web page accessibility evaluation assistant: http://www.temple.edu/inst_disabilities/piat/wave/
From: Paul Bohman
Date: Thu, Sep 07 2000 1:55AM
Subject: Advice needed ALT text PA stateparks
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In answer to your questions about the website www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/ :
Questions: what do you think of the current alt text? Is there a different wording you'd suggest? Should some description be moved to another page, and pointed to by a longdesc and/or d-link?
Answers: I like the descriptive alt tags. I am not blind, so I don't have to listen to them, but I found them to be thoughtful and appropriate. Sometimes I think that those who use screen readers are missing out on a lot of the affective appeal of the well-designed web sites. The alt tags on these pages are not exactly "worth a thousand words" as a substitute for the pictures, but that's a good thing too. They are both descriptive and brief. I think that's a good combination.
Paul