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Re: Question about image in the alt attribute

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From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Aug 2, 2014 9:15PM

[Jared wrote] It is called *ALTERNATIVE* text for a reason. This situation would morph alt into a type of supplementary or advisory text.

I have to disagree. I am not asking for any supplementary information or anything different from what is already in the alt. I'm not asking for an additional analysis of the image -- simply asking for the replacement text to be displayed along with the image. The assumption that people make is that if you can see the image then you don't need the alternative and if you have a visual impairment or cognitive disability then you'll be using text-to-speech. The fact is that many people with low vision may enlarge the text and read a site but may not be able to see the image well enough to see it and yet the alternative that should be available for them is not available but is with a screen reader or is available if they turn off all images on the page. I'm pretty confident that most people with visual impairments are not using text-to-speech but would benefit from access to the alternative because they cannot perceive the fine details in the image.

[Jared wrote] But the idea that we should change the purpose of "alternative text" to be "alternative text plus some other stuff that some users might benefit from" is very dangerous.

I never suggested anything of the sort. I'm only asking for the image's replacement alternative text to easily be displayed. Currently you have to install plug-ins to access this on the desktop and on mobile devices these plug-ins don't exist.

Jonathan


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Jared Smith
Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2014 11:04 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Question about image in the alt attribute

Jonathan Avila wrote:

> 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.

It is called *ALTERNATIVE* text for a reason. This situation would morph alt into a type of supplementary or advisory text. The title attribute (or better yet, actual screen text) matches much closer to what you are seeking in this situation. If title is not sufficient, let's come up with something different. But the idea that we should change the purpose of "alternative text" to be "alternative text plus some other stuff that some users might benefit from" is very dangerous.

Also dangerous is the notion that the alt attribute should be used as some sort of identifier of the presence of an image. We do, after all, have an <img> element which does this. If a screen reader doesn't identify the presence of images with alt="" (or more commonly, no alt
attribute) in any way, then this is a screen reader deficiency. Let's not redefine and morph the alt attribute to do something that user agents can and should do on their own.

Jared