[uf-discuss] making img machine-readable

[Andy Mabbett]

On Thu, July 12, 2007 10:37, Frances Berriman wrote:
> On 12/07/07, David Thompson <microformats at fatbusinessman.com> wrote:
>
>> Guillaume Lebleu wrote:

>>> What would be the suggested best practice to make this human-readable
>>>  content machine-readable as well?
>>
>> Ok, maybe I'm missing something here, but isn't the 'alt' attribute
>> precisely what you're looking for?
>
> I'm inclined to agree with this for in page images.  @alt should carry
> all the descriptive information needed for the machine (or other
> usergroups) needed.

That rather depends on what you mean by "descriptive information". The alt
attribute should carry the *text alternative* for the *meaning* of the
image. So "available" might be correct, but "green ball" is not. Neither
is keyword-stuffing.

A useful rule of thumb is to read the page out loud, as though you are
doing so to someone, via a telephone. What would you say, when you came to
such an image?

-- 
Andy Mabbett
** via webmail **