Image Map Rules

HTML Markup Details

map

The map element is often used to create navigation bars.

area

The area element is used within map elements to create areas within images that activate links.

Links created using the area element must have redundant text links since none of the major graphical browsers render alt attribute for the area element, making the content inaccessible to many visually impaired users.

img.alt and area.alt

Any time an img or area element is used to create a link, the alt attribute content should not describe the image but instead describe the target of the link. alt attribute content can be used by screen readers or rendered instead of the image by some graphical browsers to improve access to screen reader users and visually impaired users.

Accessibility Evaluation Rules

Image Map Evaluation Rules

no.	FAE 2007	FAE 2008	Description
1	Pass/Fail	Pass/Fail	Every area element must have alt attribute.
Additional rules			Additional rules on image maps can be found in the following best practices: Best practices for navigation bars Best practices for informative images

FAE Rule Implemetation

Illinois Functional Accessibility Evaluator 1.0

The Illinois Functional Accessibility Evaluator is a web based tool to help developers evaluate web resources for the use of the iCITA HTML best practices.

Web interface cannot currently analyze content generated dynamically with javascript.

Illinois Firefox Accessibility Extension

The Illinois Firefox Accessibility Extension is a Firefox add-in that is designed to identify accessibility features for both static and dynamically generated html content.

Useful for identifying the location of specific accessibility problems for failures and warnings indentified in FAE reports.

Create FAE reports for a page that uses javascript to generate page content with the FAE DHTML Report feature.