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Re: [EXTERNAL]Figures and Captions and Alt-text oh my...

for

From: Sandy Feldman
Date: May 8, 2018 3:12PM

I have been following this thread with real interest.

I am working on a little portfolio site for an artist. Usually alt text
is a tough sell to someone in the visual arts, but this guy has a good
friend who is blind and is right into it.

Each image on the "Paintings" page has alt text, and also a visually
hidden description of the painting provided by the artist. I didn't want
all the back and forth of long description pages. He does not want
people who can see the paintings reading the descriptions.

http://ineeda.coffee/arnie/paintings.html

Does this make sense to anyone but me? Is there a more semantic way to
do this? Comments and suggestions very welcome.

Also - this is a work in progress. The "drawings" page is not ready to
go. Other stuff is still being tweaked.

thanks! Sandy



On 2018-05-08 10:39 AM, Tim Harshbarger wrote:
> I think this brings up an important point.
>
> When you are creating accessibility tests, it is important to understand your goal. Are you trying to test against a standard? Are you testing the user experience? Or are you wanting to test something else?
>
> If you are testing against a standard, you want to make sure the tools and process you use actually tells you if something meets the standard. If you are focused on user experience, then you likely want tests that involve actual users using whatever AT they prefer to use.
>
> A developer just installing a screen reader and listening to find out if it sounds right to the developer typically doesn't achieve either of those goals. If anything, the goal in that situation ends up being to ensure the site sounds good to that developer--which ends up likely creating a site that neither meets a standard or provides a good user experience for those people who do rely on a screen reader. Well, I suppose those things might happen, but they would be accidental outcomes rather than intentional outcomes of the testing.
>