Alt Attribute Abuse

Creative use of the alt attribute.

[pageoneresults]

If there is one element that has been abused heavily and continues to be, that is the alt attribute. I've seen more creativity in alt attributes than I've seen in <title> elements. ;)

I've seen designers drop an entire page of copy in the logo alt attribute. Surely that exceeded 80 characters? ;)

What types of creativity have you seen?

Use the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual
[w3.org...]

[engine]

Domain names pasted in there: Not very friendly for improving accessibility.

[cmarshall]

I've seen a good implementation. An accessibility site [section508.gov] has the following description in its Main Logo ALT:

"Section 508. Opening Doors to IT Logo. (5 stars and 3 red stripes)"

I suspect that this is exactly how it is meant to be used.

[Tastatura]

engine:
Domain names pasted in there: Not very friendly for improving accessibility.

You mean like WebmasterWorld :) - property of both "alt" and "title", of the image in the upper left corner, is domain name prefixed with protocol "http://www.webmasterworld.com" .
Or did you mean when property is just "example" or "www.example.com"?