WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Images with captions - technical realization?

for

From: wolfgang.berndorfer
Date: Jan 5, 2020 10:35AM

Ok, seems we don’t need <figcaption> to give <figure> an accessible name.
Does a figure need an accessible name at all? The screen reader then just
announces beginning and end of the segment surrounded by <figure>, which
might be enough and reduce verbosity.

What, if we *want* a caption for the figure?
a) aria-label or aria-labelledby will read the text (referenced)
additionally at the beginning and end. Seems OK.
b) If we want the caption to be visual, <figcaption aria-hidden="true" >
seems to work to reduce redundancy. Jaws 2019/Firefox 71 reads the text of
the figcaption still at the beginning and end of the figure-segment. Seems
OK too.

But what about a simple image with a visual caption under it? Is the figure
element useful for that anyway? Seems not.

And what, if the text of the visual caption is identic with the alt-text?
I’d suggest hiding the visual caption for SR with aria-hidden. Correct?

I think, I thought to complicated before and I was confused by the WAI
tutorial for complex images.

Wolfgang

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > Im Auftrag von
Jonathan Avila
Gesendet: Sonntag, 5. Jänner 2020 02:34
An: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Betreff: Re: [WebAIM] Images with captions - technical realization?

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