Dunno if the assumption about screen readers not loading images is correct, though...
The main mistake in that article is that, for the most part, "screen readers" don't do anything on their own. They're pieces of software which run on top of the normal operating system. To browse the web, a blind person uses IE, Firefox or whatever, with screen reader software interpreting the output of said browser. Therefore, it's not about whether screen readers load images...it's about the browser that the user is running.
(caveat: there are older pieces of software, not completely "screen readers" but more like custom "talking browsers", which can behave differently...but they're certainly the exception)
I'm not particularly fond of PPK's solution, as it only allows for two scenarios: CSS+javascript - to get nice image replacement - or bare bones text. No middle ground for "just CSS".
As I said, the safest option are those techniques that "cover" the original text with an image, without hiding the underlying text via visibility:hidden, display:none or text-indent:-1000em or whatever.
Patrick _____________________________________________________ re�dux (adj.): brought back; returned. used postpositively [latin : re-, re- + dux, leader; see duke.] www.splintered.co.uk | www.photographia.co.uk http://redux.deviantart.com
****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/
Proud presenters of Web Essentials 04 http://we04.com/ Web standards, accessibility, inspiration, knowledge To be held in Sydney, September 30 and October 1, 2004
See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
