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Re: A larger discussion (was RE: Inline Images and ALT text)

for

From: Jared Smith
Date: Jan 14, 2009 12:55PM

John Foliot wrote:
> The inclusion of a photo of Jared is done deliberately. It is not a
> "decorative" image per-se, it is provided to allow folks to know what Jared
> looks like, so that (for example) when you run into him at a conference you
> can say hi to him, or whatever. As such, it is an "image of value" as
> opposed to something that is purely decorative in nature.

I would agree that the image is not decorative. However, I would argue
that the content of the image ("Jared Smith") is already presented in
text. Adding the alternative text would be redundant. If the purpose
of the image was truly to provide a description of myself, I'd add alt
text akin to, "A strapping, handsome man..." :-)

> It is also
> entirely feasible that a non-sighted user might want a copy of that image
> (for a report, to add to their social network page, to share with an
> associate, etc.), yet by not indicating that the image is part of the page
> (and using alt=""), we/you are deliberately "hiding" that information "of
> value" from the non-sighted user.

And it is also entirely feasible (and I would argue more likely) that
the user does not care nor want to be informed of the presence of an
image just because it's an image. I think your logic is a bit of a
stretch. There's nothing that precludes a screen reader user from
finding images that don't have alt text. A screen reader could be set
to have them identified when reading. By following your
recommendation, you are now forcing the identification of the image
upon users that may not want that information. Most blind users I've
spoken to do not want images identified just because they are present.
They want content - and in this case, the entirety of the content is
already presented in text.

I admit that this is an area of accessibility where there will never
be 100% agreement. WebAIM will be compiling results from our screen
reader survey in the next few weeks and I think they will generally
show that these types of things make absolutely no difference to
screen reader users. But they are sure fun for accessibility folks to
debate ad nauseum.

Jared Smith
WebAIM