Quote:
Originally Posted by getmea
There shouldn't be a penalty because it shouldn't be written as you suggested!
You are totally missing the point about ALT tags. You are only thinking about the indexing features for Google; it provides a valuable way for the Visually imparied to "see" your page with their software. As a person hits the Tab key, the local software reads the HTML to the user.
Let's suppose you code it your way. What the software will "tell" the visually handicapped (as he/she is tabbing around your page) is: " Bullet"..."Bullet"..."Bullet"..."Bullet" instead of " Home"..."News"..."Editorial"..."About"... So I ask you, is your website ADA compliant? I think not.
To improve on subhzash's response, I would write the alt (or better yet, the title tag for FF compatibility) tags as:
<li><img src="menu.gif" alt="Home page link/button" /><a href="index.htm" title="Home">Home</a></li>
<li><img src="menu.gif" alt="News page link/button" /><a href="news.htm" title="News">News</a></li>
If you don't comply, you will lose a piece of the pie. You may also get sued. I am not visually impaired; but I have a friend who is. If he visits a website where it is not ADA compliant, he "X"'s out. |
Thank you for your respnse.
I fully appreciate your point about compliance and suitability of real web pages for the visually impaired. My family has members who are visually impaired and I have been engaged by an organisation that does work for the visually and physically impaired.
As you see from the code, the
Bullets are just that – as I put in my original post, they are simple little separators. They are not links or buttons, as you seem to be suggesting, and so it could be misleading to anyone who is tabbing to make it appear that each
Bullet is anything other than just the same very simple splodge of a few pixels or is in anyway different in action or context to any other
Bullet.
That said, thanks for the guidance on the penalty aspect, which is what I was seeking.
Regards, David.