Re: [MACCAWS] IE use of ALT tag

On Tuesday, August 13, 2002, 11:42:37 PM, you wrote:
> Could someone please clear up this for me. I've understood that the way IE 
> displays ALT tags on images is wrong (i.e. on mouseover) - the correct 
> usage should be title as Opera does.

I wouldn't call it "wrong" as such. It is the browser's choice if it wants to
display alt text as a tooltip - and from a user perspective it can be quit
handy. You can read what the HTML specs say about it at
<http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/objects.html#adef-alt>.

What *is* wrong however is authors using alt and expecting a tooltip. That is
extremely wrong.

> Before I shoot my mouth off at the RNIB people I just want to be sure.

Mmm, the RNIB. Their usage of alt text is often not exactly excellent. For
instance, on their homepage (<http://www.rnib.org.uk/>), they have a list of
"hotspots", with an icon and text description.

The icons very simply don't need any alt text. alt="" (or alt="*" to show it is
a list marker) would do fine. Instead they repeat the link title twice, which is
unneeded and confusing to screenreader users. Without wanting to sound like a
certain Dr Nielsen, with alt text less is usually more.

-- 
Tom Gilder
http://tom.me.uk/