WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: repetitive alt tag question

for

From: Lynn Holdsworth
Date: Mar 28, 2015 1:23PM

Hi Mike,

Would you be able to shorten the alt text to "completed" or at most
"completed assignment"? For a screenreader user checking the status of
lots of assignments, for each one they encounter they must listen to
"this assignment has been" before they hear the information they need.
You might be surprised at how much extra time this takes and how
frustrating it can become.

Keeping alt text as short as possible without losing any vital
information, and front-loading what's most important (hence "COMPLETED
assignment" rather than "assignment completed") will cause your
screenreader users to love you for ever.

If the assignments are encapsulated in a list, and there's a heading
that says "Assignments" or some other mechanism that tells
screenreader users they're moving through a list of assignments, I
wouldn't use the word "assignment" in the alt text at all.

Best, Lynn

On 28/03/2015, Mike Warner < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Thanks, Mike. That's what I figured, but I wanted to run it by the list.
>
> Mike
>
> Mike Warner
> Director of IT Services
> MindEdge, Inc.
>
>
> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 2
>> Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 16:43:31 -0400
>> From: Mike Warner < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>> To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>> Subject: [WebAIM] repetitive alt tag question
>> Message-ID:
>> <
>> <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm re-assessing our proprietary course system for accessiblity, and,
>> while
>> there is only one red flag, there are a handful of yellow flags, as per
>> the
>> WAVE browser extension. I can't do anything about the red flag for the
>> moment, but that particular item will be gone in a month or so.
>>
>> In our courses, there are icons next to the assignment titles in the
>> navigation list to indicate whether the assignment has been completed.
>> These are checkmarks that replace the icon used for an incomplete
>> assignment. The alt text for all of them is, "This assignment has been
>> completed." We haven't had any complaints from students using assistive
>> tech, but WAVE complains about having that many images with the same alt
>> text so close together.
>>
>> Should I worry about that? Since the idea is to convey completion status
>> to the non-sighted, I don't want to say something different each time and
>> make it confusing.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Mike
>>
>>
>>
>> Mike Warner
>> Director of IT Services
>> MindEdge, Inc.
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 3
>> Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 20:57:06 +0000
>> From: "Moore,Michael (DARS)" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>> To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] repetitive alt tag question
>> Message-ID:
>> <
>> <EMAIL REMOVED>
>> >
>>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>>
>> In the case that you describe, the duplicate text is fine.
>>
>> Mike Moore
>> Accessibility Coordinator,
>> Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services
>> (512) 424-4159 (Office)
>> (512) 574-0091 (Cell)
>>
>>
>>
> > > > >