WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Images with captions - technical realization?

for

From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Jan 4, 2020 6:34PM

The HTML Accessibility API Mappings 1.0 document (https://www.w3.org/TR/html-aam-1.0/#figure-and-figcaption-elements) indicates that figcaption be used as the accessible name if there is no aria-labelledby or aria-label. I agree with Birkir's comment that the figcaption is not meant to be a replacement for any images in the figure -- but rather a caption for the figure.

One question this does raise is whether it's a violation to have a figure element without an accessible name. I'd say no as the figcaption is optional. If there is text that acts as a caption then figcaption or equivalent would be needed though -- much like a table and table caption. Any images in the figure would need their own accessible names as well -- unless decorative.

Jonathan