|
| |
|
|
Nicole
Posts: 2843
Joined: 9/15/2004
From: Nambucca / Kempsey, Australia
Status: offline
 |
Another alt attribute question... - 1/18/2006 17:53:48
If an image has a caption beneath it already, obviously adding the caption again to the alt attribute won't make sense to users using screen readers. But just say the caption beneath the image says:
"Instrument breaking up and removing pieces of clouded lens."
Is it okay do you think to add the alt attribute to the image as follows:
alt="This is a diagram of the "
I know it's not very discriptive by itself, but when read by a screen reader it'll say:
"This is a diagram of the....Instrument breaking up and removing pieces of clouded lens."
Does that make sense?
Edit: As Internet Explorer insists on showing the alt attribute to everyone, that solution is going to look silly in that browser when somebody hovers over the image. Are there any solutions to this that anyone knows?
Nicole
< Message edited by Nicoleoz -- 1/18/2006 18:01:35 >
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
BeTheBall
Posts: 6362
Joined: 6/21/2002
From: West Point Utah USA
Status: offline
|
RE: Another alt attribute question... - 1/18/2006 21:05:25
To fix the IE problem, add an empty title attribute. (title="").
As far as the other issue, I am not sure you can count on screen readers to read the alt text and then the caption in the exact order you place them. I would stay on the safe side and put meaningful text all within the alt attribute.
_____________________________
Duane
Some people are like Slinkies . . . Not really good for anything . . . . . But they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.
| |
|
|
|
spitfire
Posts: 424
Joined: 8/6/2005
Status: offline
|
RE: Another alt attribute question... - 1/19/2006 6:22:26
Can you draw any inspiration from The BBC site?
| |
|
|
|
spitfire
Posts: 424
Joined: 8/6/2005
Status: offline
|
RE: Another alt attribute question... - 1/19/2006 6:54:36
You were asking about alt text and captioned images. There is a demonstration.
You don't say which screen-reader you used but unless a piece of text is punctuated, most screen-readers will just read straight through. So your screen-reader would have answered the question about saying
"This is a diagram of the....Instrument breaking up and removing pieces of clouded lens."
How many web developers think to punctuate properly? Consider how screen-readers read straight through unpunctuated alt text, header text and such like and onto content text. It is often a surprise to throw screen-readers at ones own site and listen to it as if it was the first time. I know it used to be for me.
< Message edited by spitfire -- 1/19/2006 7:05:08 >
| |
|
|
|
spitfire
Posts: 424
Joined: 8/6/2005
Status: offline
|
RE: Another alt attribute question... - 1/19/2006 13:55:16
That's the art of good web authorship or web copy-writing. When you get a chance to give the BBC site a closer examination, I hope you will pick up how they have used alt text and the caption beneath the picture to give a fuller (but non-repetitive) umh.. picture .
And just to set the cat among the pidgeons... FoxyVoice is a Firefox only screen-reader emulator. It is said to emulate the JAWS screen-reader. It's not easy to test it against JAWS because JAWS does not work with Firefox. FoxyVoice assumes a number of JAWS verbosity settings which are not necessarily the default (out of the box) settings. For instance, if a JAWS user wants, among other things, alt/title/abbr/acronym text to be read out, s/he has to go several layers into the verbosity settings to turn them on. Many never find them, but similarly do not know that they are missing out on anything - and we work so hard to get them right
Also, in case of interest:
By default, JAWS reads the screen text for links. Therefore, the finely crafted titles, access keys etc on links that we also agonize over may be lost on many JAWS users.
Other major commercial screen-readers have their own and similar little foibles.
As seems to be the case FoxyVoice is not going to be updated for compatibility with Firefox 1.5 and later and just may become a commercial product - caveat emptor. Just to make accessible web development more of a challenge
| |
|
 New Messages |
 No New Messages |
 Hot Topic w/ New Messages |
 Hot Topic w/o New Messages |
 Locked w/ New Messages |
 Locked w/o New Messages |
|
Post New Thread
Reply to Message
Post New Poll
Submit Vote
Delete My Own Post
Delete My Own Thread
Rate Posts
|
|
|
Printable Version 
