Earlier this year, Bim wrote very eloquently on the subject of Too much accessibility: TITLE attributes, which, if you haven’t read it, or don’t remember what it says, is worth taking a couple of minutes to read over.
In the run up to the annual Better Connected survey, I thought it was worth a quick reminder of the issues, and a few top tips to help you make sure you’re not straying off the accessibility path.
Top Tip Number 1
Just because you can legally put a TITLE attribute on any HTML element, doesn’t mean you should. Think very carefully about why you’re adding a TITLE attribute and what you’re putting into it.
Top Tip Number 2
Never, ever put important information in a TITLE attribute.
Important information is things like:
- new window notifications
- file types for downloadable documents
- file sizes for downloadable documents
- anything else users might need to know when following a link
Top Tip Number 3
Good, clear, concise link text makes the need for a TITLE attribute redundant. You don’t need to repeat yourself.
Top Tip Number 4
Every image and every link does not need a TITLE attribute.
If your content management system is forcing you to enter a TITLE attribute for every link and image, go back to them, find out how to customise it and turn it off, if you haven’t already.
Top Tip Number 5
One area you can add benefit by using TITLE attributes is if you’re using back/next or previous page/next page links. Adding in the name of the next page (if it’s a blog-style page), or the page number (if it’s a multi-page document), benefits those who can see it, doesn’t leave those who can’t hanging, and doesn’t adversely affect those who get both.
Post a comment