Designer (Bob) wrote:
> 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.
I've never heard such shit in my life.

Designer (Bob) wrote:
> I personally do use alt tags, every time : but I am
> aware of situations where they are pretty useless.
Bob, I suspect the problem is that you don't know how to use alt text 
correctly. Let me backup my statement with some examples from your Web site.

On your home page:
http://www.rhh.myzen.co.uk/gam/index.php

You've made your company logo, an information image, into a decorative image:

<img src="opening/graphics/gaminternet.gif" alt=""/>

On this page:
http://www.rhh.myzen.co.uk/gam/altgam/gwelanmor.php

You've made an images of quote marks, decorative images, into an informative 
images:

<img src="graphics/8220.gif" alt="leftquote graphic" .../>
<img src="graphics/8221.gif" alt="leftquote graphic" .../>

You also put one of these decorative images with alt text into the middle of a 
sentence so the sentence now reads like this:

"We have been involved in professional computing for more leftquote graphic 
than 20 years ..."

In another graphic on this page, I don't know what this alt text means:

<img src="graphics/marramgrass.gif" alt=" " ... />

Bob, the following link may help you better understand the difference between 
decorative and non-decorative images:

http://xhtml.com/en/xhtml/reference/img/

Regards,
-Vlad
http://xhtml.com




-------- Original Message --------
From: Designer
Date: 2007-09-08 1:22 PM
> 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.
> 




*******************************************************************
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*******************************************************************

Reply via email to