alt attributes required? Always?TL;DR Yes. Yes, they are. Although the HTML5 specifications include a special case where the alt attribute can be omitted and still be conformant HTML5, this certainly doesn’t apply to any image you add to a page.
alt attributes required? Always?” »alt attribute.Jennifer Sutton brought this interesting factoid to my attention today: the single most common HTML (HyperText Markup Language) validation error is the missing alt attribute. Of the 100 most common validation errors collected by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Love, a missing alt attribute comes it at number one — with almost double the occurrences of the next most common error. It’s 2012, and the key mistakes in HTML seem to remain the same. Now, one can’t help but hope […]
Continue reading “The case of the missingalt attribute.” »Even though many elements of HTML (HyperText Markup Language) 5 have only limited application at this time due to lacking browser support, there’s little reason not to make use of them. The design of the markup language is intended to minimize dependence on user agents, failing invisibly if the browser doesn’t offer that feature, which helps encourage early use of new elements. Of course, the lack of support does have some consequences. We can’t just go out writing HTML 5 […]
Continue reading “HTML 5 has cool stuff: new input types!” »In the comments from my most recent article, “Supporting Standards that Support Accessibility,” a number of interesting thoughts were raised concerning the requirement (or lack thereof) of the alt attribute in HTML (HyperText Markup Language) 5. It’s a difficult issue. I’ve seen numerous articles around the web which discuss the fact that HTML 5 does not require the alt attribute. To some degree, this is true: HTML 5 provides exclusions to the requirement. In situations where an image is significant […]
Continue reading “Alternative Text for Significant Images” »The justification that a web site is accessible because it “follows standards” contains a serious fallacy. Specifically, the assumption that standards support accessibility. One root of current standard accessibility practice is conformance to the HTML (HyperText Markup Language) or XHTML (eXtensible HyperText Markup Language – HTML reformulated as XML (eXtensible Markup Language)) standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)). This is a fine practice, and certainly should be maintained. Using correct syntax and following […]
Continue reading “Supporting Standards that Support Accessibility” »