http://www.flyteblog.com/flyte/2008/11/use-alt-tags-for-image-optimization.html Web Marketing Strategies for Small Business Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:51:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.flyteblog.com/flyte/2008/11/use-alt-tags-for-image-optimization.html/comment-page-1#comment-243 john e brandt Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:34:59 +0000 http://www.flyteblog.com/flyte/2008/11/use-alt-tags-for-image-optimization.html#comment-243 <p>Interesting, but has some flaws. You might want to scan the dozens (hundreds?) of comments made after the video clip was posted in Dec 2007. While I understand that many web designers are more interested in SEO than accessibility, you will see that this mindset is challenged in the comments. Screen reader users NEED to have accurate ALT attributes particularly if the image is of text (e.g. part of a logo or header). But very often the image with a long, highly descriptive ALT attribute may actually detract and/or confuse the screen reader user. The screen reader will read the ALT information in the same sentence (based upon its location in the HTML) and this may be totally irrelevant to the topic of the page. So issues related to semantics are also important in choosing the proper ALT text. I know this sounds like a rant...probably is. But this is a complicated issue and I have been wrestling with for some time. And I often choose to encourage designers to choose the NULL ALT (ALT="") so as to NOT confuse the screen reader user. Other thoughts?</p> Interesting, but has some flaws. You might want to scan the dozens (hundreds?) of comments made after the video clip was posted in Dec 2007. While I understand that many web designers are more interested in SEO than accessibility, you will see that this mindset is challenged in the comments. Screen reader users NEED to have accurate ALT attributes particularly if the image is of text (e.g. part of a logo or header). But very often the image with a long, highly descriptive ALT attribute may actually detract and/or confuse the screen reader user. The screen reader will read the ALT information in the same sentence (based upon its location in the HTML) and this may be totally irrelevant to the topic of the page. So issues related to semantics are also important in choosing the proper ALT text. I know this sounds like a rant…probably is. But this is a complicated issue and I have been wrestling with for some time. And I often choose to encourage designers to choose the NULL ALT (ALT="") so as to NOT confuse the screen reader user. Other thoughts?

]]> http://www.flyteblog.com/flyte/2008/11/use-alt-tags-for-image-optimization.html/comment-page-1#comment-8095 john e brandt Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:34:00 +0000 http://www.flyteblog.com/flyte/2008/11/use-alt-tags-for-image-optimization.html#comment-8095 Interesting, but has some flaws. You might want to scan the dozens (hundreds?) of comments made after the video clip was posted in Dec 2007. While I understand that many web designers are more interested in SEO than accessibility, you will see that this mindset is challenged in the comments. Screen reader users NEED to have accurate ALT attributes particularly if the image is of text (e.g. part of a logo or header). But very often the image with a long, highly descriptive ALT attribute may actually detract and/or confuse the screen reader user. The screen reader will read the ALT information in the same sentence (based upon its location in the HTML) and this may be totally irrelevant to the topic of the page. So issues related to semantics are also important in choosing the proper ALT text. I know this sounds like a rant...probably is. But this is a complicated issue and I have been wrestling with for some time. And I often choose to encourage designers to choose the NULL ALT (ALT="") so as to NOT confuse the screen reader user. Other thoughts? Interesting, but has some flaws. You might want to scan the dozens (hundreds?) of comments made after the video clip was posted in Dec 2007. While I understand that many web designers are more interested in SEO than accessibility, you will see that this mindset is challenged in the comments. Screen reader users NEED to have accurate ALT attributes particularly if the image is of text (e.g. part of a logo or header). But very often the image with a long, highly descriptive ALT attribute may actually detract and/or confuse the screen reader user. The screen reader will read the ALT information in the same sentence (based upon its location in the HTML) and this may be totally irrelevant to the topic of the page. So issues related to semantics are also important in choosing the proper ALT text. I know this sounds like a rant…probably is. But this is a complicated issue and I have been wrestling with for some time. And I often choose to encourage designers to choose the NULL ALT (ALT="") so as to NOT confuse the screen reader user. Other thoughts?

]]> http://www.flyteblog.com/flyte/2008/11/use-alt-tags-for-image-optimization.html/comment-page-1#comment-8096 john e brandt Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:34:00 +0000 http://www.flyteblog.com/flyte/2008/11/use-alt-tags-for-image-optimization.html#comment-8096 Interesting, but has some flaws. You might want to scan the dozens (hundreds?) of comments made after the video clip was posted in Dec 2007. While I understand that many web designers are more interested in SEO than accessibility, you will see that this mindset is challenged in the comments. Screen reader users NEED to have accurate ALT attributes particularly if the image is of text (e.g. part of a logo or header). But very often the image with a long, highly descriptive ALT attribute may actually detract and/or confuse the screen reader user. The screen reader will read the ALT information in the same sentence (based upon its location in the HTML) and this may be totally irrelevant to the topic of the page. So issues related to semantics are also important in choosing the proper ALT text. I know this sounds like a rant...probably is. But this is a complicated issue and I have been wrestling with for some time. And I often choose to encourage designers to choose the NULL ALT (ALT="") so as to NOT confuse the screen reader user. Other thoughts? Interesting, but has some flaws. You might want to scan the dozens (hundreds?) of comments made after the video clip was posted in Dec 2007. While I understand that many web designers are more interested in SEO than accessibility, you will see that this mindset is challenged in the comments. Screen reader users NEED to have accurate ALT attributes particularly if the image is of text (e.g. part of a logo or header). But very often the image with a long, highly descriptive ALT attribute may actually detract and/or confuse the screen reader user. The screen reader will read the ALT information in the same sentence (based upon its location in the HTML) and this may be totally irrelevant to the topic of the page. So issues related to semantics are also important in choosing the proper ALT text. I know this sounds like a rant…probably is. But this is a complicated issue and I have been wrestling with for some time. And I often choose to encourage designers to choose the NULL ALT (ALT="") so as to NOT confuse the screen reader user. Other thoughts?

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