Accessibility - Part 9
Article ID: KB101572
Last month we looked at some of the checkpoints under Guideline 3,
which states:
Guideline 3. Use markup and style sheets and do so properly.
This month we'll continue to look at more of the checkpoints
under Guideline 3.
Checkpoint 3.1. When an appropriate markup language exists,
use markup rather than images to convey information.
This checkpoint is one that is hard to follow, because in
essence, it says that you shouldn't use images to convey any
information that could be coded in HTML or some other kind of
markup language. This would immediately knock out all the pretty
article titles on this very page! Another example is that of
displaying a math equation. It may be easier to create a graphic
with the math equation on it, but it would be much better if you
used a mathematical markup language - or at the least, HTML text -
to write out the equation.
What's the point of this checkpoint? When you have an image
"title," as we do on this page, the display text size is fixed. But
if the title is rendered using HTML, the text size at least has the
possibility of being resized, so, for example, people with
poor vision can read the text.
As the web site builder, it's your choice how you want to
implement this checkpoint. When you're working with a site that is
trying to project a clean, professional image, images will no doubt
be used for some text rendering, whether in headings or titles. In
that case, you'll want to make sure that you follow
Guideline 1 by providing alternate text and descriptions for the
images. But as much as possible, you'll want to follow this
checkpoint so that your content will be accessible.
Checkpoint 3.2 Create documents that validate to published
formal grammars.
This checkpoint basically says that you should 1) write "clean"
code - code that conforms to the standards of the HTML
specifications (or a different "formal grammer" like XHTML) and 2)
put a line of code in your page that lets the browser know which
"standard" you're using.
If you're using FrontPage or some other web editor, chances are
that your code will mostly conform to the "HTML 4.01 Transitional
document type descriptor." You'll want to put this line of HTML in
the very top of your document:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01
Transitional//EN">
Next month we'll look at the last two checkpoints of Guideline 3
that deal with cascading style sheets.
Next: What's Up With Markup? Pt 4
Contributors
Corrie Haffly:
Corrie is the author of the Accessibility series, which appeared
in the PixelMill Newsletter. Though you may not know her name,
Corrie has become one of the top experts in the FrontPage Template
industry. You may know her work better under the name John Galt's
Templates. See Corrie's stunning products today!
John Galt's Templates
John Galt's Tools, PixelMill Newsletter, Volume 3 - Issue 3 : 03/01/2003
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