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Re: Alternate text for images having caption adjacent

for

From: Jared Smith
Date: May 30, 2014 10:40AM

On Fri, May 30, 2014 at 10:15 AM, <EMAIL REMOVED> wrote:

> How about we provide alt ="" and add an off screen message "image" along with description?

There is no accessibility requirement that you provide a description
of what the image looks like and there's no requirement that users
know that an image is present. All that is required is that you
provide alternative content for the image. In short, image
descriptions (what the image looks like) are usually not the same as
alternative text (the content the image conveys).

Alternative text is required for accessibility and goes in the alt
attribute or in adjacent text. Image descriptions or identifications
are NOT required for accessibility and should usually NOT go in the
alt attribute (unless the description and alternative text happen to
be the same). If you choose to add verbose descriptions of the image
appearance (as Bevi described regarding NatGeo Magazine examples),
they should probably be made available to everyone in a caption.

When we train about alternative text, we never use the word
"description" - instead we use "content" and "function". When you
focus on providing the image content and function in alternative text
(whether via the alt attribute or adjacent text), then the results are
usually better, more succinct equivalents.

Jared