[html4all.org] Content-type negotiation as an alternative to ALT, LONGDESC and fallback

[Robert Burns]

Hi Phil,

I have to say that is an intriguing idea. I had never though of  
delivering text instead of an image through negotiation. I'll have to  
think about it further, but it might be a workable solution in some  
settings. I wouldn't want us to just give up on providing an HTML  
solution to the problem, but until that solution exists, this could  
work.

Take care,
Rob

On Aug 25, 2007, at 5:29 AM, Philip TAYLOR wrote:

> Before I float this on the main list, I'd like to bounce
> it off "the advocates group", where it may receive a more
> open-minded review :
>
> Although we have already agreed that HTML itself needs
> to provide fallback (because media authors may not have
> done so intrinsically), I now begin to wonder whether the
> whole ALT/LONGDESC/fallback issue is not better addressed
> at the HTTP level.  Given that HTTP already supports
> content-type negotiation, is it conceivable that we
> could make use of this by specifying that embedded
> content should not use explicit MIME type or filename
> extensions ?  A page could then make reference to
> (say) <img src="Australian-flag"> and if the user's
> browser were set to prefer (say) "audio/*" over "text/*"
> over "image/*" (and if <img> were re-defined in HTML 5
> to accept any MIME type, not just images), then the
> user would receive an audio description of the flag
> if available, then as first fallback a textual description,
> and finally -- if and only if neither of the others
> were available -- the image itself.
>
> What do others think ?
>
> ** Phil.
>
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