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From: GILLENWATER, ZOE M
Date: Wed, Aug 01 2012 6:58AM
Subject: screen reader behavior on alt-less images
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Hi folks,

I'm trying to learn more about what different screen readers do by default when they encounter a non-linked image with no alt attribute. Can anyone help me fill in the holes or correct any of the info below?

-- NVDA: skips it
-- JAWS: skips it (Has JAWS always done this, or did this change over time? Did it used to read the file name by default?)
-- VoiceOver: reads file name
-- WindowEyes: ??

Thanks for your help,
Zoe

Zoe Gillenwater
Technical Architect, Design Standards Accessibility
Creative Experience Team
AT&T eCommerce

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From: John Foliot
Date: Wed, Aug 01 2012 3:17PM
Subject: Re: screen reader behavior on alt-less images
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GILLENWATER, ZOE M wrote:
>
> Hi folks,
>
> I'm trying to learn more about what different screen readers do by
> default when they encounter a non-linked image with no alt attribute.
> Can anyone help me fill in the holes or correct any of the info below?
>
> -- NVDA: skips it
> -- JAWS: skips it (Has JAWS always done this, or did this change over
> time? Did it used to read the file name by default?)
> -- VoiceOver: reads file name
> -- WindowEyes: ??
>

Interesting question and timing there Zoe <smile> (relates to a W3C
thread...)

I am curious about why you are only focused on non-linked images - in my
experience the *worst* user experience is when a non-alt image is a link. In
JAWS/IE it seems to read out the file name of the image, and NVDA/FF it
reads out the full URL, which given some of the dynamically named URLs we
see today can be down-right painful.

As far as JAWS is concerned, yes, I believe you are correct. A few releases
back they changed the default handling of images with no alt, but I don't
recall exactly when that was.

Finally, I wonder aloud if any other screen reader data might emerge from
this group/thread around the same question. I'm thinking of System
Access/System Access To Go, ZoomText, Hal/Supernova, ChromeVox...

Cheers!

JF