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Thread: Best practice with ALT text
Number of posts in this thread: 5 (In chronological order)
From: Alan Zaitchik
Date: Wed, Jan 06 2016 9:22AM
Subject: Best practice with ALT text
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I have wondered about the following for some time.
If I am creating a web page which uses a graphic with text, e.g. a list of services provided by some client, and the web page itself has the SAME text, should I mark the graphic as decorative (ALT="")? Should I set the ALT attribute to the same text? Or should I do something like ALT="list of services provided by XYZ, presented elsewhere on this page"?
The first won't help users with limited, but not totally absent vision, who may wonder what the text in the image is. The second will inconvenience users employing a screen reader who now hear the same text twice. The third makes reference to "elsewhere on this page" which just seems a bit odd. All things considered, I'm thinking that option 3 is actually the most generally beneficial. What do you do? Please do not suggest redesigning the page altogether since we do not have control over the contents and page elements in many cases, alas.
A
From: David Farough
Date: Wed, Jan 06 2016 12:24PM
Subject: Re: Best practice with ALT text
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Option 3 seems to be the best in my view but even better would be to add
the same page link to the list.
David Farough
Coordonnateur de l'accessibilité des applications, Services intégrés de
gestion des TI
Commission de la fonction publique du Canada / Gouvernement du Canada
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = Tél: 819-420-8418 Télécopieur :
819-420-8408
Application Accessibility Co-ordinator, Corporate IT Management
Public Service Commission of Canada / Government of Canada
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>>> "Alan Zaitchik" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > 11:22 AM Wednesday,
January 06, 2016 >>>
I have wondered about the following for some time.
If I am creating a web page which uses a graphic with text, e.g. a list
of services provided by some client, and the web page itself has the
SAME text, should I mark the graphic as decorative (ALT="")? Should I
set the ALT attribute to the same text? Or should I do something like
ALT="list of services provided by XYZ, presented elsewhere on this
page"?
The first won't help users with limited, but not totally absent vision,
who may wonder what the text in the image is. The second will
inconvenience users employing a screen reader who now hear the same text
twice. The third makes reference to "elsewhere on this page" which just
seems a bit odd. All things considered, I'm thinking that option 3 is
actually the most generally beneficial. What do you do? Please do not
suggest redesigning the page altogether since we do not have control
over the contents and page elements in many cases, alas.
A
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From: Joseph Sherman
Date: Wed, Jan 06 2016 1:19PM
Subject: Re: Best practice with ALT text
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Any way to avoid images of text? Is the same text on the web page next to the image, or somewhere else? How long is the list?
I think it depends on the context, content, and layout of the page. Do you have an example?
Joseph
-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Alan Zaitchik
Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2016 11:23 AM
To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Subject: [WebAIM] Best practice with ALT text
I have wondered about the following for some time.
If I am creating a web page which uses a graphic with text, e.g. a list of services provided by some client, and the web page itself has the SAME text, should I mark the graphic as decorative (ALT="")? Should I set the ALT attribute to the same text? Or should I do something like ALT="list of services provided by XYZ, presented elsewhere on this page"?
The first won't help users with limited, but not totally absent vision, who may wonder what the text in the image is. The second will inconvenience users employing a screen reader who now hear the same text twice. The third makes reference to "elsewhere on this page" which just seems a bit odd. All things considered, I'm thinking that option 3 is actually the most generally beneficial. What do you do? Please do not suggest redesigning the page altogether since we do not have control over the contents and page elements in many cases, alas.
A
From: Julie Lewis
Date: Thu, Jan 07 2016 12:15PM
Subject: Re: Best practice with ALT text
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Why do you need an image of the text when you have the actual text on the
page?
Personally if it¹s a decorative image, or if the information is somewhere
else on the page, I just do alt=³².
Regards,
Julie Lewis
From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Thu, Jan 07 2016 12:21PM
Subject: Re: Best practice with ALT text
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> The third makes reference to "elsewhere on this page" which just seems a bit odd. All things considered, I'm thinking that option 3 is actually the most generally beneficial.
The definition of "Text alternative" in WCAG is
Text that is programmatically associated with non-text content or referred to from text that is programmatically associated with non-text content. Programmatically associated text is text whose location can be programmatically determined from the non-text content.
Example: An image of a chart is described in text in the paragraph after the chart. The short text alternative for the chart indicates that a description follows.
Note: Refer to Understanding Text Alternatives for more information. (http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#text-altdef)
So that would indicate that you would need to reference the text from the alt text of the image.
However, WCAG conformance requirements allow for non-conforming page content on the page as long as it doesn't interfere and the page as a whole conforms. That is an image might not be accessible but somewhere else on the page there is an equivalent and the association isn't relevant for SC 1.3.1 to apply then the page could conform by simply marking the image as decorative and provide the equivalent. So I suppose it really comes down to SC 1.3.1 on whether the association communicated by the image and surrounding text is important and if so whether it is communicated in text elsewhere.
Jonathan
Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group
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703.637.8957 (o)
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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Joseph Sherman
Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2016 3:19 PM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Best practice with ALT text
Any way to avoid images of text? Is the same text on the web page next to the image, or somewhere else? How long is the list?
I think it depends on the context, content, and layout of the page. Do you have an example?
Joseph
-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Alan Zaitchik
Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2016 11:23 AM
To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Subject: [WebAIM] Best practice with ALT text
I have wondered about the following for some time.
If I am creating a web page which uses a graphic with text, e.g. a list of services provided by some client, and the web page itself has the SAME text, should I mark the graphic as decorative (ALT="")? Should I set the ALT attribute to the same text? Or should I do something like ALT="list of services provided by XYZ, presented elsewhere on this page"?
The first won't help users with limited, but not totally absent vision, who may wonder what the text in the image is. The second will inconvenience users employing a screen reader who now hear the same text twice. The third makes reference to "elsewhere on this page" which just seems a bit odd. All things considered, I'm thinking that option 3 is actually the most generally beneficial. What do you do? Please do not suggest redesigning the page altogether since we do not have control over the contents and page elements in many cases, alas.
A