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Simon Willison’s Weblog

Quick testing of alt attributes

Via Web Graphics, ScriptyGoddess’ Get ALT Info bookmarklet, which displays a list of all of the images on a page along with their alt attributes; great for testing a page to make sure you haven’t missed any.

Posted 19th June 2003 at 11 pm

This is Quick testing of alt attributes by Simon Willison, posted on 19th June 2003.

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7 comments

  1. Your "Via Web Graphics" link is off, should most likely be: http://www.web-graphics.com/mtarchive/000916.php instead of http://web-graphics.com/images/more-detail.gif

    Brian - 19th June 2003 23:18 - #

  2. Doh - I copied the wrong link. Fixed now.

    Simon Willison - 19th June 2003 23:28 - #

  3. It's not as convenient as a bookmarklet, but the "View Page Info" option in Firebird [Ctrl+I] displays this information in the "Media" tab. Trick is, the "Alternate Text" column is not displayed by default -- you have to turn it on by selecting it from the box in the upper-right. I believe Mozilla has this too.

    Adrian - 20th June 2003 01:27 - #

  4. Umm... am I missing something? Validation would pick that up instantly (alt is a required attribute for the img element since HTML 4.0) - and if you aren't validating, why bother with any other kind of QA?

    Jim - 20th June 2003 03:02 - #

  5. Jim, perhaps the value of the bookmarklet is better stated as the following:
    • when you want to check your alts before validation, which some might want to do as a seperate process
    • when you want to verify that your alt tags are appropriate for each image
    • when you want to view the alt tags on another site in a browser that doesnt show them via tool tips (e.g. safari)

    Nate - 20th June 2003 04:05 - #

  6. Try the bookmarklet at this URI and see what you get.

    And note this is for rehabilitative training to:

    "... improve management of stress and pain, and provide coping skills for chronic illness and disabilities."

    So long as your disability doesn't preclude your seeing a GIF, I guess.

    Michael - 20th June 2003 09:50 - #

  7. I developed that bookmarklet so just in case people were wondering why - the reason why I did it is because (unfortunately) part of my job is creating HTML email (at least it is REQUESTED mail...but what can you do. Gotta pay the bills). In any case, we have a proofreader read the emails, but they can't proofread the ALT tags. Recently an email went out with an error in the alt tag and it displayed as text in certain mail readers. DOH! I developed and then gave that bookmarklet to the proofreaders so they'd be able to review the ALT tag text as well, going forward... (That was why at the end of that comment I said "wish I had this yesterday... don't ask!") :)

    Jennifer - 21st June 2003 04:05 - #

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Previously hosted at http://simon.incutio.com/archive/2003/06/19/testingAltAttributes

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