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OR the pride in
your abilities that challenges the gods to bring
you down!
Yep! I know the
meaning of hubris.
Remember me? I'm
the person who said that I'd finally worked out
that alt tags were really captions, to help
people, who had their graphics turned off, know
what the images were.
Bzzt! (the buzzer
to indicate a wrong answer....)
I've since
discovered the real, fair dinkum reason
that we have alt tags: they're not to help people
who don't want to see the graphics, but to help
those who can't see the graphics.
A thousand
'thank-yous' to everyone who took the time to
contact me, and to try to explain the original
function of alt tags.
I hope I've got it
right this time ....
There are sound
enabled readers installed in special browsers for
those with disabilities, and these readers
actually do read what is on the page - out aloud.
Try this little
exercise: enlist the help of a friend, click onto
a site neither of you have seen before, close
your eyes and have your friend read the
site to you ...... Not easy, is it?
Now imagine what
it would be like if you had to view every
site like this. Hence, alt tags.
These are the main
points that should govern our use of alt tags:
If you have an
image of a tree on your site, and it's part of
your company logo - symbolising growth - then you
want everyone who visits to get this message.
Your alt tag, therefore should read something
like this: alt="tall tree - Bigge
Enterprises - make your business grow with our
special software." That way, everyone knows:
what the image is, who you are and what you do.
If you use
graphical buttons, labelled "Home",
"About Us" etc, you also need to repeat
this information in your alt tags. If you don't,
then you make it impossible for blind users to
navigate the site.
If the graphics
are simply buttons or lines, use the
"invisible" alt. (alt=" "),
then the browser's reader will pass over these,
instead of reading "...we offer red button
free tune up red button free lube ..."
I hasten to add
that my own site doesn't do all of these things -
but it's something that I'll be working on in the
future.
If you want a
truly humbling experience, go to
"Bobby" - this site will validate
your site and show you how accessible it is ...
you won't believe how many little bobby helmets
fit on one page .....
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