As said in bug 286975 (comment #73), images in mail_help.xhtml should have valid and non empty values in their alt attributes, so people with disabilities can properly access to help content. I will provide a patch once bug 286975 is fixed, in order to isolate changes from both bugs, to avoid scaring my poor fellow localizers. :-)

Stefan, per bug 286975 comment #17, how much of a priority is it to replace the separate images/* files for help by the actual icons of the theme used? Given that /none/ of the 30 <img> has an alt="" attribute with a description, it would imply double work for the localizers if they have to translate the alt entries just to do the same thing again once the <img> have been replaced with <span> and corresponding CSS rules (with title="" or something similar creating the tooltips). Thus, if indeed it's of a high priority, taking care of the theme references should probably happen first.

(In reply to comment #1) > Stefan, per bug 286975 comment #17, how much of a priority is it to replace the > separate images/* files for help by the actual icons of the theme used? You wonder when bug 249744 will be fixed ;-) I doubt that it will be done before 2.0. Otoh, the issue (some theme files in messenger depends on content css files) that made me stop working on bug 249744 might be resolvable now.

Ok, I don't quite understand if your response is a yes or no for Ricardo to go ahead adding the "alt" strings at this time or if it is better to wait for some other fix to come in, but on the other hand, grabbing the images directly from the theme would be possible only for a handful of icons anyway: > images/mail_flag.png > images/mail_read.png > images/mail_unread.png > images/offline.png > images/online.png All others appear to be more of a screenshot which would have to be done for each theme separately then if that's the goal, or just redone with the default theme and presented for all themes. So, I guess my concerns are neglectable.

Well, today we combine images from the theme and our own icons - even though they exist in the theme. Then we also have a bunch of screenshots (like for tabs). But the idea in bug 249744 is to replace all images. Any icon (back-button, offline icon etc) could be replaced by using xbl. Also, any simple ui-element could also be replaced (by attaching xbl to a xhtml element). That said, I'm not sure if it's a good idea to replace all screenshots. Anyway, maybe we might want to wait a couple of weeks with this - then I can look if the icons can be done. I might ending up doing nothing, but just in case (you made me look at it again).

Actually, when bug 488522 is resolved I might be able to do something in bug 249744.

So let's put this on hold for now. From the list in comment #3, only online.png and offline.png (plus the feeds icon from bug 286975) are in the "correct" communicator category, thus would be the only ones which could be handled in the same way as the smileys. That's narrowing it down quite a bit without being able to use XBL.