[Blindmath] Alt description and long description for images

Richard Baldwin baldwin at dickbaldwin.com
Mon Feb 11 23:21:23 UTC 2013


Thanks Michael, I will look into those suggestions for testing the alt
description.

Regarding the missing long descriptions, I found a web page at
http://webaim.org/techniques/images/longdesc that reads as follows:

"There are several ways of providing a long description for images. These
options are listed below, in order of most preferred to least preferred:

   1. Provide the long description in the context of the document itself.
   2. Provide a link to a long description via a normal text link.
   3. Provide a link to a long description via the longdesc attribute."

That is good news for me because I know how to do either 1 or 2 very
reliably, which means that I don't need to worry about supporting the
longdesc attribute.

That author goes on to say later that "...For these reasons, longdesc has
been dropped from the HTML5 specification."

**
That definitely means that I don't need to support it.

Thanks again,
Dick Baldwin

On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 4:58 PM, Michael Whapples <mwhapples at aim.com> wrote:

> I find a few graphics, but one of them says "Image 2 . Input image #1."
>
> I think the alt-tags are working fine.
>
> Could you test this by getting your browser to not download images and
> show alt-tags instead? Either that or a text-only browser (on Linux I would
> head for using lynx, for windows I am not sure but may be webbie
> http://www.webbie.org.uk/ might help with testing accessibility).
>
> Michael Whapples
> On 11/02/2013 22:14, Richard Baldwin wrote:
>
>> On further examination, I believe that I lost the long description but the
>> alt should be there. Can anyone with a screen reader confirm that the alt
>> either is or is not there for the image at at
>> http://cnx.org/content/m44148/**latest/#Image_1<http://cnx.org/content/m44148/latest/#Image_1> (and for three other images
>> on that page as well).
>>
>> If the alt is there, I know how to restore the long description without
>> too
>> much reprogramming. If the alt is not there, I have a more difficult
>> problem to solve.
>>
>> For anyone who may be interested, documents are uploaded to the
>> cnx.orgsite in an xml format where they are then converted to html,
>> pdf, epub,
>> etc. The alt is in the xml file that I uploaded but the long description
>> is
>> missing from that file meaning of course that it will also be missing from
>> the final output. I hope you tell me that the alt is in the final output.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Dick Baldwin
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 3:42 PM, Richard Baldwin <baldwin at dickbaldwin.com
>> >**wrote:
>>
>>  Never mind. I think I figured out where the alt and long description are
>>> getting lost.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Dick Baldwin
>>>
>>> On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 3:21 PM, Richard Baldwin <
>>> baldwin at dickbaldwin.com>**wrote:
>>>
>>>  Hmmm Strange. When I hover my mouse over the flags on he duxbury site I
>>>> don't see what you describe in either Google Chrome, Firefox, or IE.
>>>>
>>>> Can someone with Jaws or NVDA take a look at this?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Dick Baldwin
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 3:10 PM, George Bell <
>>>> George at techno-vision.co.uk>**wrote:
>>>>
>>>>  Hi Dick,
>>>>>
>>>>> Speaking as a sighted user, they don't seem to be appearing as I'd
>>>>> expect when hovering the mouse over the images.
>>>>>
>>>>> The following is an example line from the main page here
>>>>> http://www.duxburysystems.com.  You'll see a large selection of flags,
>>>>> and if you hover your mouse over a flag, the Alt Text is displayed.
>>>>>
>>>>> <a href="default.asp?z=lv"><img src="flags/latvia.gif" alt="Latvian
>>>>> translation" width="45" height="30" title="Latvian translation"></a>
>>>>>
>>>>> George Bell
>>>>> UKAAF  (UK  Association for Accessible Formats)
>>>>>
>>>>> e-mail: georgebell at ukaaf.org
>>>>> Web: http://www.ukaaf.org
>>>>> Direct Tel: 0160 479 2777
>>>>> Direct Fax: 0160 479 2726
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces@**nfbnet.org<blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org>]
>>>>> On Behalf Of
>>>>> Richard Baldwin
>>>>> Sent: 11 February 2013 20:47
>>>>> To: BlindMath Mailing List
>>>>> Subject: [Blindmath] Alt description and long description for images
>>>>>
>>>>> For the first time ever, I am attempting to put meaningful alt
>>>>> descriptions and long descriptions on some images on a web page.
>>>>> However, I
>>>>> have no way of knowing if it is working.
>>>>>
>>>>> If someone could examine the alt description and the long description
>>>>> of
>>>>> the image at http://cnx.org/content/m44148/**latest/#Image_1<http://cnx.org/content/m44148/latest/#Image_1>and tell me
>>>>> what you find there, that would be very helpful.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Dick Baldwin
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
>>>>> Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials http://www.DickBaldwin.com
>>>>>
>>>>> Object-Oriented OOP with Java
>>>>> http://cnx.org/content/**col11441/latest/<http://cnx.org/content/col11441/latest/>
>>>>>
>>>>> Professor of Computer Information Technology Austin Community College
>>>>> (512) 223-4758
>>>>> mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
>>>>> http://www.austincc.edu/**baldwin/ <http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/>
>>>>> ______________________________**_________________
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>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
>>>> Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials
>>>> http://www.DickBaldwin.com
>>>>
>>>> Object-Oriented OOP with Java
>>>> http://cnx.org/content/**col11441/latest/<http://cnx.org/content/col11441/latest/>
>>>>
>>>> Professor of Computer Information Technology
>>>> Austin Community College
>>>> (512) 223-4758
>>>> mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
>>>> http://www.austincc.edu/**baldwin/ <http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
>>> Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials
>>> http://www.DickBaldwin.com
>>>
>>> Object-Oriented OOP with Java
>>> http://cnx.org/content/**col11441/latest/<http://cnx.org/content/col11441/latest/>
>>>
>>> Professor of Computer Information Technology
>>> Austin Community College
>>> (512) 223-4758
>>> mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
>>> http://www.austincc.edu/**baldwin/ <http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
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>



-- 
Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials
http://www.DickBaldwin.com

Object-Oriented OOP with Java
http://cnx.org/content/col11441/latest/

Professor of Computer Information Technology
Austin Community College
(512) 223-4758
mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/



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