Andrew Scott
Telstra, Australia
andrew.e.scott@team.telstra.com
Burden of work should move back the chain to ensure acceptability
Infrastructure Providers (hundreds)
Content Developers (thousands)
Users (millions)
Not the only issue (eg. XML)
It is very hard to separate all aspects of content and presentation
For example, use of the word “wednesday” makes assumptions of presentation.
On WAP, may use “Wed” instead, and VoiceXML may use something like “wendsday” to be pronounced correctly
Perhaps a better Alt mechanism?
Have ALT attribute in IMG tag, but only provides a text alternative.
Need something more general?
Perhaps a standard rule that all <TAG/> type tags can be given an alternative by using <TAG>ALT</TAG>?
Alternatives can be created by content author (not presentation author)
Mechanism would be consistent across many types of tags
Alternatives can be nested, supporting multiple interface types
Non-textual alternatives can be specified
Textual content can be given alternative representations