Shadi,
My criticism here was not with the WAI guidelines but with the fact that
it is unlikely that a third party certification programme would be able
to judge whether the "alt-text" was appropriate.
This is highlighted by the increasing reuse of content which can include
the adoption (whether by design or accident) of alternatives authored in
another context. This is something we are having to increasingly make
authors aware of. It is often only the author or at least someone with
subject expertise who understands the pedagogic intent who can judge is
an alternative is appropriate in the new context.
Cheers,
Martyn
-----Original Message-----
From: DCMI Accessibility Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Shadi Abou-Zahra
Sent: 24 May 2006 08:34
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: clarification of WAI Guidelines (was Re: certification program)
Ho Martyn,
M.Cooper wrote:
> 1. Assuming you take the WAI guidelines as the base line - how do
> you address the problem that it is possible to conform to these
> guidelines and still not have a site that is both accessible and
usable
> by people with different types of disability. To illustrate from my
> area of work which is educational software/web sites: An image may
have
> a valid "alt-text" but that "alt-text" may not be appropriate for the
> pedagogic intent of using that image in that particular context.
What is your definition of "valid alt-text" and what is your reference
for that term? The relevant WCAG 1.0 provision, Checkpoint 1.1, says
provide an *equivalent* text alternative [1]. That is, descriptions
should capture the true intent (and/or meaning) of non-text content. In
your specific case, the appropriate description would be the pedagogic
intent. The mere existence of an ALT-attribute (in the case of images in
HTML) is therefore not sufficient to pass the "WAI Guidelines" as you
state.
[1] <http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth#tech-text-equivalent>
Regards,
Shadi
--
Shadi Abou-Zahra Web Accessibility Specialist for Europe |
Chair & Staff Contact for the Evaluation and Repair Tools WG |
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) http://www.w3.org/ |
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