Comments on: Quiz 1.1.1: ALT text for custom list markers

by: Bob Easton

Sun, 12 Jun 2005 10:20:48 +0000

Shanon,
If you are refering to how my quiz questions are marked up, please look at the code. What appear to be images for A, B, C, D are simple CSS styles for actual text included in the list items. No images; no ALT text.

by: shannon

Thu, 09 Jun 2005 17:51:42 +0000

One thing you might think about with this example. I was verifying an education site that coded all the exam questions as above. The “a, b, c and d” images in this case were important because you had to select the response and check against the correct answer. Since they were coded as alt=”", a student completing the test had to do some extra work to keep track of the order so they selected the correct answer.

by: Mike Thomas

Thu, 07 Apr 2005 14:11:29 +0000

Hi,

Just stumbled across this blog and was most interested in the discussion. I would certainly code the the ALT attribute for a bullet as alt=”" (answer A) but the RNIB link posted by Gez has the following to say about ALT text for a bullet:

The following are all valid “alt” descriptions for bullets:
alt=”Option 1”
alt=”-“
alt=”Item“

Clearly the RNIB don’t have too much of an issue with ALT text for a bullet, provided it is relevant.

by: Bob Easton

Sat, 02 Apr 2005 21:52:05 +0000

For those who might not have listened to a screen reader, here are audio recordings of how two screen readers pronounce our test case. These were made with “out of the box” default settings for each tool. I used the reading mode that simply pronounced the site as an unbroken stream. Both use IE 6 as the browser on a Windows XP Pro system.

Spoken by Jaws 5.0 (384k mp3)

Spoken by IBM Home Page Reader 3.04 (296k mp3)

by: Becky

Thu, 31 Mar 2005 20:43:29 +0000

Here is what JAWS 6.0 speaks for the lists on the test page:
empty alt: “List with three items Curley Larry Moe list end”

asterisk: “List with three items graphic star Curley graphic star Larry graphic star Moe list end”

bullet: “List with three items graphic bullet Curley graphic blulley Larry graphic bullet Moe list end”

But of course this can be changed slightly depending upon how the JAWS settings are configured.

by: Gez

Thu, 31 Mar 2005 18:21:31 +0000

As far as I’m aware, assistive technology treats empty alt text and space(s) equivalently. Internet Explorer incorrectly displays the alt text in a tooltip when the mouse if hovered over the image. If the alt text is empty, IE doesn’t display a tooltip. If the alt text contains a space, IE displays an empty tooltip.

The following resources are useful for understanding the alt attribute:

* http://www.joeclark.org/book/sashay/serialization/Chapter06.html
* http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/PublicWebsite/public_alttext.hcsp

by: Ed.

Thu, 31 Mar 2005 17:01:18 +0000

Where I work, the accessibility policy suggests alt=” ” instead of alt=”". Is this less desirable?

by: Bob Easton

Wed, 30 Mar 2005 20:52:41 +0000

John Beaudette, did you try listening to the test case? What does it sound like?

by: John Beaudette

Wed, 30 Mar 2005 19:57:42 +0000

NOTE: The line in your site
“Our question is about how to provide the right level of accessibility for those images.”
reads as
“Our question is about how to provide the wrong level of accessibility for those images.”

ps
Using Macintosh OS X v10.3.8 speech module with Safari browser.

by: Arve Bersvendsen

Wed, 30 Mar 2005 10:19:38 +0000

Since we're asking, can everyone please stop refering to alt as a tag? alt is an attribute.