Jazajay
Active Member
I have just fininshed a freelance project and the client submitted it to a forum for feedback. One of the ideas was that it was wrong to leave blank alt attributes as blind people wont be able to read whats in the image.
Now seriously, really?
But its a prime example of how just that little bit of knowledge is actually dangerous because the guy clearly thinks he's being clever to point that "issue" out but doesn't know enough to understand why I left them blank in the first place.
The analogy I put back to the client really sums this up TBH:
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Same thing as a gun really. lets say the only thing you knew was pulling the trigger fires it but what happens when you look down the barrel and do the same thing? If you didn't know what a bullet did that little bit of knowledge is far dangerous than having a full understanding or no understanding at all, because otherwise you wouldn't of looked down the barrel and pulled the trigger in the first place.
Unfortunatly the web industry is by far full of people with little bits of knowledge and no understanding of the greater picture, which is where they should concetrate their time IMO.
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Now once i explained why he actually understood how it wasn't actually an issue at all, and for people who don't know:
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But if it is decorative someone who is blind is not going to want to read decorative image, decorative image, decorative image as its annoying to them.
Don't add it and screen readers, thats browsers for blind people, will read out the whole file path to them instead.
So:
http :// www. example.com/images/background-image-top-right-corner-1.jpg
Would be read out literally to them so:
http colon forward slash forward slash www dot example dot com forward slash images forward slash background hypen image hyphen top hyphen right hyphen corner hyphen one dot jpeg
Now do that 5 times, yet alone 50, and blind people will get far more annoyed then they need to. They also don't want to hear decorative image, decorative image, decorative image, so you leave it blank so its literally ignored by the screen readers.
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I also had this corka today:
Client: Since friday the server has been flipping out.
Me: Why?
Client: It's bouncing loads of emails to my customers, but I don't know if it was doing it on the weekend or just today and friday.
Me: hold on I'll just check, (TBH light bulb moment) your mail box.
<--Log in and check-->
Me: Your mail box is full.
Client: O I have outlook setup to fetch them down.
Me: is it set to fetch and delete or fetch and store?
Client: O.
So again what turned out to be server problems was down to a full mail box as he hadn't configured it properly, but because they where bouncing it must have been a problem with the server, yeah we put DNS or nameserver changes in all the time, and the server does it randomly as well.
I had an even better one when a client reported his payment system wasn't working as it wasn't adding any VAT to the purchase orders, it wasn't until I looked in to it and noticed it was he just forgot the system discounts for multiple buys and the system was working as it should do.
So for example, as in this case:
4-8 of the same order is £1 cheaper per item, but it must be again a complicated problem with VAT not adding on to any order not just this one.
But dear lord. Anyone else had any clients come back with "advice/site problems"?
If so how did you deal with it?
I must admit I have loads of other examples as I get loads from work as we host around 100 sites. I love support questions, really I do.
Now seriously, really?
But its a prime example of how just that little bit of knowledge is actually dangerous because the guy clearly thinks he's being clever to point that "issue" out but doesn't know enough to understand why I left them blank in the first place.
The analogy I put back to the client really sums this up TBH:
------------------------------------------------------------------
Same thing as a gun really. lets say the only thing you knew was pulling the trigger fires it but what happens when you look down the barrel and do the same thing? If you didn't know what a bullet did that little bit of knowledge is far dangerous than having a full understanding or no understanding at all, because otherwise you wouldn't of looked down the barrel and pulled the trigger in the first place.
Unfortunatly the web industry is by far full of people with little bits of knowledge and no understanding of the greater picture, which is where they should concetrate their time IMO.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Now once i explained why he actually understood how it wasn't actually an issue at all, and for people who don't know:
------------------------------------------------------------------
But if it is decorative someone who is blind is not going to want to read decorative image, decorative image, decorative image as its annoying to them.
Don't add it and screen readers, thats browsers for blind people, will read out the whole file path to them instead.
So:
http :// www. example.com/images/background-image-top-right-corner-1.jpg
Would be read out literally to them so:
http colon forward slash forward slash www dot example dot com forward slash images forward slash background hypen image hyphen top hyphen right hyphen corner hyphen one dot jpeg
Now do that 5 times, yet alone 50, and blind people will get far more annoyed then they need to. They also don't want to hear decorative image, decorative image, decorative image, so you leave it blank so its literally ignored by the screen readers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
I also had this corka today:
Client: Since friday the server has been flipping out.
Me: Why?
Client: It's bouncing loads of emails to my customers, but I don't know if it was doing it on the weekend or just today and friday.
Me: hold on I'll just check, (TBH light bulb moment) your mail box.
<--Log in and check-->
Me: Your mail box is full.
Client: O I have outlook setup to fetch them down.
Me: is it set to fetch and delete or fetch and store?
Client: O.
So again what turned out to be server problems was down to a full mail box as he hadn't configured it properly, but because they where bouncing it must have been a problem with the server, yeah we put DNS or nameserver changes in all the time, and the server does it randomly as well.
I had an even better one when a client reported his payment system wasn't working as it wasn't adding any VAT to the purchase orders, it wasn't until I looked in to it and noticed it was he just forgot the system discounts for multiple buys and the system was working as it should do.
So for example, as in this case:
4-8 of the same order is £1 cheaper per item, but it must be again a complicated problem with VAT not adding on to any order not just this one.
But dear lord. Anyone else had any clients come back with "advice/site problems"?
If so how did you deal with it?
I must admit I have loads of other examples as I get loads from work as we host around 100 sites. I love support questions, really I do.