Rahul Gonsalves wrote:
On 31-Aug-07, at 11:08 PM, Designer wrote:
Well Vlad, whether it fits your conception or not, there is such a
thing as a site whose prime function is visual. The only 'information'
in the site I mentioned is what something 'looks like'. If you can't
see it, there is nothing you can do to help that.
It's a sad fact of life I'm afraid.
Bob,
While not quite in direct response to your statement, I thought I'd
share this article from over at A List Apart:
http://alistapart.com/articles/revivinganorexicwebwriting
Specifically the 'A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words' bit.
"I admit to having overlooked alt text. Until a year ago I sniffed at
the idea of creating useful alt text for images. “If a user is blind,” I
reasoned, “what does he care that I have a photograph of the university
tower on my website?”
My fellow designer shrugged. “Well, I guess if you don’t really care
about what the image says,” she said slowly, “you really don’t need it
in the first place.”"
Best,
- Rahul.
*******************************************************************
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*******************************************************************
Hi Rahul.,
Whilst interesting and quite valid, I think the article is not about
stuff on web sites that are primarily visual art. What I mean is that
the sort of stuff which is purely visual poetry cannot have an alt tag
which adds anything other than a 'lable'. Consider (just as an example)
a web site to accompany a show by Mark Rothko, with a handful of images
from the show displayed on the site. Those images just cannot be
appreciated by someone who cannot see them. No amount of descriptive
prose will mean anything to to a blind reader. (In fact, the images lose
a lot compared to their actual presence in the gallery, even for
sighted viewers).
In case you are unfamiliar with Rothko, you can see stuff at :
http://www.nga.gov/feature/rothko/classic1.shtm.
Using this arbitrary example, I still maintain that a site of images
such as any of these will be of no more value to a blind user for having
alt tags, other than to point out that 'there is a picture there'. Of
what, the blind user has no idea because they are impossible to describe.
I personally do use alt tags, every time : but I am aware of situations
where they are pretty useless.
--
Bob
www.gwelanmor-internet.co.uk
*******************************************************************
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*******************************************************************
