Sarah Peeke (XERT) wrote:
I recently stumbled across a site (sorry lost the reference now) that
made reference to the fact that an asterisk should be used inside an ALT
attribute (eg alt="*") when the image is only used for presentation
purposes.
Apparantly this is helpful for screen readers.
It's an outdated piece of advice. Old screen readers did not cope with
empty alts, so alt="*" was suggested as a viable default: screen readers
apparently didn't read that out on normal settings.
However, nowadays the suggested practice is the null alt, alt=""
Or, to quote the RNIB
"Some sites may still use an asterisk for these images i.e. ALT="*".
RNIB previously recommended this when screen readers where unable to
pick up on empty or null ALT text. This issue no longer exists, so, as a
strong recommendation and not a requirement, we encourage sites to
switch to null or empty ALT text."
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/PublicWebsite/public_alttext.hcsp#P16_1774
(halfway down, under "Layout images")
--
Patrick H. Lauke
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[latin : re-, re- + dux, leader; see duke.]
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