

Blank alt attributes for images - best practise?

From: Dey Alexander <dey.alexander@its.monash.edu.au>
Date: Mon, 06 Oct 2003 17:17:42 +1000
To: W3C WAI IG list <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Message-id: <3F811716.6060701@its.monash.edu.au>

What is the latest recommended practise for markup of blank alt 
attributes for images?  I've had conflicting advice of two sorts:

1. Use a space between the quotation marks (alt=" ") to prevent older 
screenreaders reading out the file name

2. Don't use a space between the quotation marks (alt="") as it causes 
other problems

What are your thoughts/experiences?  Can anyone provide a list/partial 
list of user agents that misbehave (along with the nature of the 
misbehaviour) in either scenario 1 or 2?


Dey Alexander
Usability Specialist, Web Resources and Development
IT Services Division, Monash University (Clayton)
Email: dey.alexander@its.monash.edu.au
Ph: +61 3 9905 4740   Fax: +61 3 9905 3024
Received on Monday, 6 October 2003 03:18:56 GMT
