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Re: Question about image in the alt attribute

for

From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Aug 2, 2014 8:32PM

> http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/embedded-content.html#examples-of-scenarios-where-users-benefit-from-text-alternatives-for-images

Steve et al, I don't think this list completely describes the scenario that we are concerned about. What I would like to see added is an example where a person has low vision or a cognitive disability and desires to have the alternative text of the image displayed alongside with the image AND they are NOT using text-to-speech.

While the specification allows for the alternative text to be display in this method it is not required to be a user option. It would be good to document this in the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines or other appropriate document and encourage browsers to offer this.

In the not so recent past browser manufacturers were actually criticized and call non-conformant for showing alt text along the image in a tooltip. IE use of this was actually cited as one reason of why it was not conformant to standards and should not be used. This was very unfortunate.

Jonathan


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Steve Faulkner
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2014 5:50 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Cc: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Question about image in the alt attribute

Hi Olaf

This doesn't need to be fixed in WCAG or HTML as it is not a constraint Refer to example scenarios where alt text may be useful http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/embedded-content.html#examples-of-scenarios-where-users-benefit-from-text-alternatives-for-images

> On 31 Jul 2014, at 10:43, Olaf Drümmer < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> This is one of the areas where WCAG needs fixing - accessibility is not about disabilities of user agents.
>
> Olaf
>
>
>> On 31 Jul 2014, at 10:30, "Jukka K. Korpela" < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>>
>> 2014-07-31 10:56, Olaf Drümmer wrote:
>>
>>>> On 31 Jul 2014, at 06:56, "Jukka K. Korpela" < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>>>>
>>>> That's not what the alt attribute is for. It is to be presented when the image is not displayed. It is ALTernative.
>>>
>>> I think you are misunderstanding something here. It is never about what is presented, it is always about what can be perceived. Furthermore supporting more than one channel (e.g. text to speech plus visual display) in the very same moment can be very useful. All this is not about "either or", it is about options (a minimal set of options, more is always OK), and each user should have mechanisms available to make use of these options in any fashion and combination.
>>
>> "For user agents that cannot display images, forms, or applets, this attribute specifies alternate text."
>> http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/objects.html#adef-alt
>>
>> "alt - Replacement text for use when images are not available"
>> http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/embedded-content-0.html#attr-img-alt
>>
>> The alt attribute has a job to do (to act as a replacement for an image). Trying to make it handle other affairs as well, no matter how relevant they might be in some contexts, disturbs it in doing its job.
>>
>> Yucca
>>
>> >> >> list messages to <EMAIL REMOVED>
>
> > > list messages to <EMAIL REMOVED>