[spec] Clarify purpose of alt-text

[Katarina Eriksson]

On Sunday, February 28, 2021 10:28 PM, Adnan Maolood <me at adnano.co> wrote:
> I think the following conventions can be adopted instead:
>
> 1. Authors of Gemini text are STRONGLY encouraged to add alt text to
> ASCII art and other inacessible preformatted text to prevent it from
> being read aloud by screen readers. For example:
>
> ```ASCII art of a smiley face
> :)
> ```

Agreed, though I would like to see a space character between "```" and the alt text in this case.

> 2. Code, poems, and other accessible text SHOULD NOT use alt text and
> instead prefer to place any descriptive text above or below the
> preformatted text. For example:
>
> Here is a code snippet demonstrating how to use print:
> ```
> print("Hello, world!")
> ```

I like the approach of being extra clear on what's to come, even to people who don't need the description.

If the code isn't considered accessible, it could be marked with a single word alt text with no whitespace, like this:

 This is how it looks like minified:
 ```javascript

Though, maybe it's better to provide a separate file at that point.

> 3. Clients should allow the user to skip displaying preformatted text.
[...]

I think there are no disagreements here.

--
Katarina