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The Web is a highly visual medium and non-textual material is encouraged wherever it will add value.
Consider accessibility issues (see Section 5 - Accessibility - below) in the use of colour and tables.
General image standards
Required
- Ensure that copyright requirements are adhered to and that images are in good taste.
- The document HTML code must include an alternative informative textual description of the image for use by text-only browsers and text readers. If the image is purely decorative, the document HTML code should use an emplty alt attribute (alt=" ")
- Long descriptions must be provided for complex images.
- Image maps must be accompanied by text equivalent menus.
Recommended
- Because images slow down the page loading process, make access to images, animations, etc, optional via links. Use thumbnails where appropriate to show the user what image they are selecting.
- Animated images are supported subject to meeting file size criteria and not requiring multiple server accesses. Use them sparingly because they can be very irritating. Use low loop counters, i.e. loop twice or three times then stop.
Interactivity
Web pages provide a powerful means for allowing users to interact with the site owner. For example, forms can be designed to permit visitors to input data of many types. Many issues arise - privacy, security, identification, etc. It is feasible for HealthInsite to point to interactive pages on a partner site but management of the interactive process is entirely the responsibility of the site owner.
Multimedia
Multimedia resources, including sound and video files, can be selected for HealthInsite topics and be accessible via the HealthInsite search facility. To ensure accessibility of these resources, alternative equivalent content such as text captions or auditory descriptions must be provided - further information can be found at http://www.w3.org/TR/SMIL-access/#Equivalent. Multimedia resources must also have HTML cover pages with appropriate metadata and descriptive information.
Publishing standards for HealthInsite, v5, June 2007
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