1.1 Alternative text for every non-text element
The New Zealand Web Standards 2.0 were released in March 2009 and replace the previous version, the New Zealand Government Web Standards 1.0 (below). See Meeting the standards for more information.
The standard
1.1 Provide alternative text for every non-text element, such that it conveys the same meaning or information that the non-text element conveys (for example "alt", "longdesc", or in element content). This includes: images, graphical representations of text (including symbols), image map regions, animations (for example, animated GIFs), applets and programmatic objects, ASCII art, frames, scripts, images used as list bullets, spacers, graphical buttons, sounds (played with or without user interaction), stand-alone audio files, audio tracks of video, and video.
Guide to this standard
- A null Alt equivalent (“”) is required for layout elements e.g spacer graphics.
- For images, include in each <area> of an image MAP, and INPUT elements of type="image".
- Alt text for the case where the image is displaying text should be the same as the text in the image.
This standard covers the W3C WAI checkpoint 1.1 for NZ government agencies.
Rationale for this standard
Users with visual impairments may have difficulty with content other than text. Screen readers will make use of the alt-text provided for non-text items
