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From: Sandy
Date: Wed, Jan 22 2014 12:24PM
Subject: alt text for facebook images
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hey all,

I am hoping to find you all in a "there's no such thing as a stupid
question" mood.

I am trying to add alt text to a facebook banner and profile image.
According to FB I should be able to do this by adding a description to
the photo that then becomes the alt text. I've been trying this approach
and it just doesn't seem to take.

I've posted some screenshots of me trying to add alt text and what I end
up with here
http://sandyfeldman.com/fb/

Am I missing something really obvious? Is there somewhere else I should
be entering this information?

Thanks for your help,
Sandy

From: Bourne, Sarah (ITD)
Date: Thu, Jan 23 2014 8:54AM
Subject: Re: alt text for facebook images
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Sandy,

I suspect you can't really tell if it's worked until you "publish". When I look at my timeline, the alt text for images is exactly the same as what people put as text. The value of having the same text twice is another issue! I couldn't find the information you were talking about on the page you gave, but I would suggest that that is the best place to ask.

sb

Sarah E. Bourne
Director of Assistive Technology &
Mass.Gov Chief Technology Strategist
Information Technology Division
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
1 Ashburton Pl. rm 1601 Boston MA 02108
617-626-4502
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://www.mass.gov/itd

From: Sandy
Date: Thu, Jan 23 2014 2:18PM
Subject: Re: alt text for facebook images
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> I suspect you can't really tell if it's worked until you "publish".
> When I look at my timeline, the alt text for images is exactly the
> same as what people put as text. The value of having the same text
> twice is another issue! I couldn't find the information you were
> talking about on the page you gave, but I would suggest that that is
> the best place to ask.
>

Sarah, that's a good thing to look for.

(Just so you know, the text that's there now is just for testing. The
site owners will write the real copy instead of us here at the
Department of Redundancy Department.)

thanks for taking the time to answer,
Sandy

From: Morin, Gary (NIH/OD) [E]
Date: Thu, Jan 23 2014 2:46PM
Subject: Re: alt text for Facebook images
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from what I can tell, you're not technically adding alt-text to the image but 'merely' giving it a caption, which 'could' serve the same purpose. But a caption and an alt-text aren't typically the same thing - could be the only way to make the best of a bad situation?

From: Jarrett Clark
Date: Thu, Jan 23 2014 4:44PM
Subject: Re: alt text for Facebook images
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The caption you give a photo appears in the alt text in your timeline. The
photo in the lightbox does not have alt text, instead it uses
the aria-describedby attribute.


On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 4:46 PM, Morin, Gary (NIH/OD) [E] <
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> from what I can tell, you're not technically adding alt-text to the image
> but 'merely' giving it a caption, which 'could' serve the same purpose.
> But a caption and an alt-text aren't typically the same thing - could be
> the only way to make the best of a bad situation?
>
>

From: Sandy
Date: Fri, Jan 24 2014 7:59AM
Subject: Re: alt text for Facebook images
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On 1/23/14, 6:44 PM, Jarrett Clark wrote:
> The caption you give a photo appears in the alt text in your timeline. The
> photo in the lightbox does not have alt text, instead it uses
> the aria-describedby attribute.

Jarrett, thanks for taking the time to answer.

Just to be clear -- if I add text in the caption section of the FaceBook
interface for the banner and profile images it becomes the
aria-describedby attribute, and this works for screen readers. Have I
got this right?

Do the images in FB photo albums use the captions as alt text, or is it
the caption that a screen reader will read out?

thanks!
Sandy

From: Sandy
Date: Fri, Jan 24 2014 8:03AM
Subject: Re: alt text for Facebook images
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> from what I can tell, you're not technically adding alt-text to the
> image but 'merely' giving it a caption, which 'could' serve the same
> purpose. But a caption and an alt-text aren't typically the same
> thing - could be the only way to make the best of a bad situation?

This might be the best we can do, but I am hoping not. It seems like
banner images have no alt text, no matter what, and profile images take
their alt from somewhere, but not the caption. (sigh.)

thanks for taking the time to post!
Sandy

From: Sandy
Date: Fri, Jan 31 2014 7:53AM
Subject: Re: alt text for Facebook images
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>> from what I can tell, you're not technically adding alt-text to the
>> image but 'merely' giving it a caption, which 'could' serve the same
>> purpose. But a caption and an alt-text aren't typically the same
>> thing - could be the only way to make the best of a bad situation?
>
> This might be the best we can do, but I am hoping not. It seems like
> banner images have no alt text, no matter what, and profile images take
> their alt from somewhere, but not the caption. (sigh.)

Good news, guys.

George Zamfir, in the FaceBook accessibility group is on this now.

He also sent me a link where it's possible to open a docket on FB
accessibility issues:
https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/169372943117927

thanks, all, for helping me think about this.
Sandy