<h1>Web Accessibility</h1>

<h2>What Does It Mean?</h2>

A "Text Browser"?

Yes! A text browser! Leave the image tag at home unless you will always remember to fill in that alt attribute!

With reference to the image below, what Lynx shows from a highly graphical page:

• In the title bar of the Command Prompt window is the address of the current link, http://www.siu.edu/~cola/directory.html (Long-time users of Windows will recognize the "DOS box"; yes, Lynx is a "command-line" program!)
• The title of the open page is displayed in yellow-on-blue: "Welcome to the SIUC College of Liberal Arts!" (Notice that Lynx requires two pages, or screens, to display this page: "(p1 of 2)" follows the text of the web page's title.
• "Navigational graphic to College of Liberal Arts home page: the current page!" appears in black; this is the alternative text for a graphic that is not linked to another online document
• "Navigational graphic to College of Liberal Arts directory" appears in a maroon color; this is the active page element associated with the link information in the title bar. In this case, the active page element is a graphic, so what Lynx displays is the alternative text associated with the graphic.
• Run together in an unbroken string of bright blue text are the alternative text values for a set of graphics; the color of the text indicates that these page elements have associated links to other web documents.
• Before another unbroken string of bright blue text comes a character string in black: "Liberal Arts banner logo." This is the alternative text for another graphic. This is actually two graphics, but there is no link to another web document associated with either of the two graphics, liberal and ARTS.
• Note the method of navigation from the last two lines of the image:
  • the up and down arrows go back and forward through the links contained in the current page;
    the left arrow key plays the role of the Back button in a graphical browser;
    the right arrow key follows the current, highlighted link;
  • H displays help;
  • O displays options;
  • P is the print key;
  • G opens a blank line at the bottom of the window for the user to type the address of the web page to which the user wishes to go next;
  • M returns to the main Lynx screen;
  • Q begins to quit or close the Lynx program;
  • / begins a search;
  • the [Del] key gives a history list.

Question, or pop quiz: What would a visitor see with Lynx on a page that has only graphical elements, and none of the image tags has an alternative text attribute?

Answer: nothing! The page would appear to be blank!

Lynx will detect the anchor tags providing the links, but if the anchor tag applies to an image and the web author did not provide a value to the alternative text attribute of the image tag, then there is nothing that Lynx can display, on which it could "hang" the associated link!

( Privacy Policy | Last saved August 17, 2004 )