1.2 Provide text links for server-side image maps

Server-side image maps are currently not accessible to anyone who uses a non-graphical browser or a browser with images turned off. You can't provide alternative text for each active region; alternative text only applies to the map as a whole. This means there is no way to access the hot-spots in a server-side image map.

In addition, server-side image maps rely on a mouse click, so users of keyboards, screen readers, touch screens or special pointing devices can’t use them.

If you must use a server-side image map, you should provide a text link elsewhere for each hot-spot. For example, if you have a map of The UK with different regions on which users can click for more information, you should also list regions as hypertext links elsewhere on the page.

The W3C suggests three techniques to use with server-side image maps:

• Include the alternative links within the body of an <object> tag
• If you use an <img> tag to insert the image, provide an alternative list of links after it and indicate the existence and location of the alternative list. For example.
  
  <a href="http://www.example.com/cgi-bin/imagemap/my-map">
  <img src="welcome.gif" alt="Welcome! (Text links follow)" ismap>
  </a>
  [<a href="reference.html">Reference</a>]
  [<a href="media.html">Audio Visual Lab</a>]
• If other approaches don’t make the image map accessible, create an alternative page that is accessible