David Dixon wrote:
Actually, yeah, you are completely correct.
Yes, of course I am. :-)
I would probably revise the img tag itself to read something like:
<img src="/images/accessibility.jpg" width="100" height="89" alt="The
imagery of a person on a wheelchair is generally considered a symbol for
accessibility" title="An image of a wheelchair: the symbol for
accessibility">
How is that alt text *relevant* to the content at all?
As an example to illustrate why no alt text is required, imagine you
were marking up the icons on your computer's desktop. Each icon has a
label and often a tooltip. Here's a few examples with some alt text
along the lines you propose for the accessibility icon:
<img src="mycomputer" alt="An image of a computer" title="Shows the disk
drives and hardware connected to this computer"> My Computer
<img src="" alt="The image of a folder and magnifying glass is the
symbol for Windows Explorer" title="Displays the files and folders on
your computer."> Windows Explorer
<img src="word" alt="The Microsoft Word icon is a blue W inside a
square" title="Create and edit text and graphics in letters, reports,
Web pages, or e-mail messages by using Microsoft Office Word.">
Microsoft Word
In all of those cases, would you really want a screen reader to read out
alternate text like that for every icon on the desktop? Of course not!
All of these are cases where the image is semantically relvant to the
content, but requires empty alt text, just like the accessibility icon.
--
Lachlan Hunt
http://lachy.id.au/
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