Technology-specific Checkpoints
Introduction
This document refers Checkpoint 1.1 from the 25 January 2001 WCAG 2.0 Working Draft
and focuses on HTML. Other checkpoints and technologies were not considered
at this time since this is a rough first attempt to aid discussion at the 8
February 2001 WCAG WG telecon.
A previous version of the Technology-specific
checkpoint was published 08 November 2000 and included techniques for
other technologies such as CSS, SMIL, XHTML and XML.
Several of these checkpoints were derived from techniques in the Techniques For Accessibility Evaluation And
Repair Tools (AERT) public working draft. Perhaps if WCAG
technology-specifics were written in this much detail it would make life
easier not only for author but also for developers of authoring tools
(including evaluation and repair tools).
HTML
Checkpoint 1.1 Provide a text equivalent for all non-text content.
- Provide a valid "
alt" attribute for every img
element.
- A valid "
alt" attribute provides a short functional
equivalent for an image. A long description may also be necessary (see
item 2). A valid "alt" attribute:
- May be "" or " " for spacer images and not in an A element. [refer
author to browser support to help them make a decision - ala the
decision at the 15 June 2000
teleconference]
- Should not contain the size of the file (e.g., "780K")
- Should not contain the file name (e.g., "foo.gif")
- Should not contain placeholder text (e.g., "put alt-text
here")
- May be a "*" for bullets in a list (although style sheets are the
recommended way of doing this. [refer to CSS techniques and browser
support]
- May be.... [continue to document standard alt-text practices]
- For an applet...
- For a graphical input button...
- Describe an image if the description will add information not given in
the text or short equivalent required in #1.
- The amount of information contained in the illustration will determine
how detailed your description must be. Images that usually require a
description are diagrams, charts, and maps. [refer to excerpts from
NBA manual on examples and directions for describing images]
- Provide a valid "
alt" attribute for every
input element of type="image".
- [provide description similar to #1]
- Provide a valid "alt" attribute for every
applet
element
- A valid "alt" attribute:
- [provide description similar to #1]
- Describe an applet if the description will add information not given in
the text or short equivalent required in #4
- [similar to the nesting objects phenomenon]
- Provide an HTML equivalent of an applet if the page is unusable without
one
- (i.e. the applet is interactive and the interaction is required to
progress throughout the site or application).
- Provide a valid text equivalent within the content of an object
element.
- [Need to distinguish between images, movies, etc. Also discuss cascade
of alternatives. Similar structure as with applets (#4-6)?]
- Provide a text transcript of all audio files
- [refer to core techniques]
- Describe the relationships between frames if the relationships are not
apparent from the titles of the pages in the frames
- Link to this description using the "longdesc" attribute on each of the
frame elements.
- Provide a valid "alt" attribute for every area element
- A valid "alt" attribute...
- Script elements...
- aye yi yi.
- Use valid HTML to provide a text equivalent and perhaps describe ASCII
art
- [link to a description?]
$Date: 2001/02/07 06:34:47 $ Wendy Chisholm