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Thread: Citing alt-text sources?

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From: Laurie Kamrowski
Date: Thu, Jul 30 2020 1:49PM
Subject: Citing alt-text sources?
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Hi everyone!

Does anyone know if there is a specific way to cite the information that
you received to create the alt text of an image?

I am also asking the APA style blog for input, and will post follow up here
as well.

Best,

Laurie Kamrowski
She/Her/Hers
Accessibility Specialist
Mid Michigan College

From: Mitchell Evan
Date: Sat, Aug 01 2020 3:25AM
Subject: Re: Citing alt-text sources?
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Hi Laurie,

Which direction is the citation? (1) Alt text on a website cites a source
for the alt text itself, or (2) An online or print article cites alt text
on somebody else's website as a source for the article.

For #1, here's a precedent:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources#Multimedia
"A citation is not needed for descriptions such as alt text that are
verifiable directly from the image itself..."
If you do choose to cite a source, then don't clutter the alt text itself.
Instead, provide the citation text through a separate description
technique, such as G74 (...text near the non-text content...)
<https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Techniques/general/G74>.

For #2, I'm not aware of a style guide precedent, but it sounds like you're
asking in the right places.

Cheers,
Mitchell

Mitchell Evan
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> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Laurie Kamrowski < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> Cc:
> Bcc:
> Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2020 15:49:32 -0400
> Subject: [WebAIM] Citing alt-text sources?
> Hi everyone!
>
> Does anyone know if there is a specific way to cite the information that
> you received to create the alt text of an image?
>
> I am also asking the APA style blog for input, and will post follow up here
> as well.
>
> Best,
>
> Laurie Kamrowski
> She/Her/Hers
> Accessibility Specialist
> Mid Michigan College
>
>