Re: [SEC508] alt attributes using Firefox on two sites

[William R Williams <wrwilliams@fs.fed.us>]

Okay, I stand corrected in that the Access Board website does make use of
the title attribute and I apologize for my oversight in suggesting it does
not. Still, there are some things that need to be pointed out:

   The Access Board site does use the alt attribute for the image element
   and uses title for the anchor element as well. So does the W3C site.
   Firefox, in keeping with W3C recommendations, does not display the alt
   attribute as a tooltip because the developers believe it encourages
   misuse of this attribute.
   See: http://www.mozilla.org/docs/web-developer/faq.html#alttooltip

I believe the Access Board site is 508 compliant, and it almost goes
without saying that it must be given board's role in developing the 508
provisions, although I do have some concern about the manner in which the
alt and title attributes are being used on that site. More specifically,
the values for each are identical as it involves the navbar images & links
-- which may or may not be a redundacy problem for users of AT devices.
Personally, I might find it irritating. However, this practice does not
really keep with W3C recommendations. If you follow the 'specs,' the alt
and title attributes have separate functions and are not interchangeable:

http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/struct/global.html#adef-title
7.4.3 The title attribute
Attribute definitions
title = text [CS]
This attribute offers advisory information about the element for which it
is set.

http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/struct/objects.html#adef-alt
13.8 How to specify alternate text
Attribute definitions
alt = text [CS]
For user agents that cannot display images, forms, or applets, this
attribute specifies alternate text. The language of the alternate text is
specified by the lang attribute.

While alt is used as alternative text for essential content if an image,
etc. cannot be displayed, title can be used provide additional information
that is not essential. The title attribute is probably used more properly
on the Access Board site to present the list of images for DisabilityInfo.
gov and Firstgov.gov as "Governement links." Here's another source that has
useful information about the use of these 2 attributes:
   http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200412/the_alt_and_title_attributes/

========================
Bill Williams
Communications Specialist
USDA Forest Service, Region 5
707.562.9005
wrwilliams@fs.fed.us
========================


                                                                           
             Laura Harley                                                  
             <lharley@designin                                             
             teractive.com>                                             To 
             Sent by:                  "Barrett, Don"                      
             sec508-admin@trac         <Don.Barrett@ed.gov>, Untitled 3    
             e.wisc.edu                <sec508@trace.wisc.edu>             
                                                                        cc 
                                                                           
             12/19/2005 12:16                                      Subject 
             PM                        Re: [SEC508] alt attributes using   
                                       Firefox on two sites                
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           





Don Barret--

I just checked the Access Board' site. The images are coded with the
<title>
tag, which only IE uses and understands. Firefox and all Moziall-based
browsers don't understand the <title> tag.

The <title> tag looks and works just like the <ALT> tag, except that you
can
put a <title> tag on any HTML element, not just images. So technically the
Access Board's site is not 508 compliant, in that no alt tags have been
specified for the images.

My 2 cents.

Laura

Laura Harley
Principal and Sr. Web Architect
Design Interactive LLC
Alexandria, VA 22302

Visit our Website: http://www.designinteractive.com



On 12/19/05 12:04 PM, "Barrett, Don" <Don.Barrett@ed.gov> wrote:

> I have had an interesting inquiry from someone who is using Firefox and
they
> say that the alt tags aren't showing up for the site
www.access-board.gov, yet
> when the individual goes to the site http://www.w3.org/WAI/
> the alt attributes show up.  I have no idea if they are using AT or not.
Does
> anyone know if FF responds differently than IE to alt attributes?
>
>
> Don Barrett
> Section 508 Coordinator
> U.S. Department of Education
> (202)-205-8245
> don.barrett@ed.gov
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> SEC508 mailing list
> SEC508@trace.wisc.edu
> http://trace.wisc.edu:8080/mailman/listinfo/sec508
>

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