You are here: : Homepage > Best practices > Sheet No1
Equivalent alternative content for all image files is correctly provided.
Enable navigation and access without images (in the case of text or braille navigators, deactivated images, etc.) enable the display of text while images are loading and improving referencing.
The alt attribute exists for every <img> element and follows the following structure :
alt="" for images that don’t carry information necessary to the comprehension of the text. Exemple of code : <img src="spacer.gif" height="1" width="1" alt="">. Warning : the ommision of the alt attribute is not equivalent to an empty attribute and is not acceptable.alt="_function_" for linking images, with the value (_function_) the function of the link: <img src="..." alt="Home"> for the well known icon"home" ;alt="_description_" for images the perception of which is necessary for the understanding of the content.The description of the page or of its function will be limited to sixty characters, in order to be correctly displayed on tactile medias (braille pads) on an screens equipped with a magnifying application.
Test with an accessibility validator: http://www.ocawa.com/auditez.htm
and with a text navigator or simulator such as http://lynx.browser.org/ http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html