• Reported by Nate

Catching up with chi-web mailing list I find William Hudson's response to a message regarding fonts for screen readability. The response points to the royal national institute for the blind, who have this list of handy hints for developing with consideration of screenreading applications - such as the following which I didn't realize:

If the image is essentially "eye candy" or is used for the purpose of visual layout (e.g. "spacer" images), the ALT text should be set to read "*". This will let the user know that the image contains no information and performs no relevant function - they are not left in the position of knowing the image exists but being unsure of what it might contain or do.

Lots more there too.
Also in his email he mentions tiresias a font created for tv sub-titles, and therefore a suitable screen-font.
I mention these things found by way of the chi-web mailing list not for redundancy, but because I believe it's important for those who design the web to pay close attention to how their works are being percieved, and this includes non-visual methods. I suppose there's a part of me which feels that visual perception isn't to be taken for granted, and if one day I were to loose my sight - the web would be a great resource for information and entertainment - if only those creating it keep accessibility in mind.