Common typographic characters or constructions to be avoided are "emoticons"
and arrows consisting of dashes and greater-than signs, e.g., "-->",
":)", ":(", etc. Screen readers for the blind will read these
literally, i.e. "colon, close parenthesis." Try to avoid using ASCII art on your
web pages. Instead, use an image with alternative text or provide a description and a
means to skip over the art
(e.g., a link). If the ALT tag for the image is long, use a LONGDESC or D-link as
well.
For instance, instead of an ASCII art "graph", use an image of a chart as shown
below:
<IMG SRC="chart.gif" ALT="Chart of cash flow for each month"
LONGDESC="cashflowchar.txt">
<A HREF="cashflowchar.txt">D</A>
Note: Bobby cannot detect the presence of ASCII art and asks this question for every page.
If your page does not use ASCII art it may be in conformance with this technique. Rationale:
Screen readers for the blind will read the characters that make up ASCII art literally,
e.g., ":)" (a smile emoticon) will be read as "colon, close
parenthesis." |
