I understand that nothing gets people yelling at each other like a meaty discussion on accessibility, but I’m not getting why the idea of making alt optional on img tags in HTML5 is causing such a furor. The alt attribute is the lowest of the low‐hanging accessibility fruit, and the number of people on earth who care about valid HTML — but don’t care even a little about accessibility — could fit into my pants. Get more people interested in validating their HTML; then we’ll talk.
Comments
Agreed – making the attribute required (which it already IS in HTML4) is not even going to solve any problems since the level of accessibility is barely related to the syntax or presence of an alt attribute at all.
Start encouraging (forcing would be nice!) valid HTML publically and everyone will benefit.