

Success criteria 1.1.1 : alt attribute for an image with a caption

From: ACS Horizons - Armony ALTINIER <armony@acs-horizons.fr>
Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2012 08:06:53 +0200
Message-ID: <CAFZFPagwh9yLYhYYzjC7Y7uBS05ja9c0qvqem5mH6UBJcmW4=Q@mail.gmail.com>
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Hi all,

For my first message on this list, I would seek after your help to
interpret the Success Criteria 1.1.1.

In the case of a news website, if you have an article with an image (<img>
tag) which is just an illustration, with no more information that the text
around already provides, you must add an empty alt attribute, right?

Now, if this website has a coding which is not HTML5, and a caption for
this image writing between paragraph tags, how would you fulfill the alt

If we consider the context, the caption already provides the information,
so an alt with the same information would just be verbose. But with an
empty alt, the image is just ignored, so how the caption would be related
to the img tag?

If we just duplicate the information of the caption in the alt attribute,
we invalid this portion of Success Criteria 1.1.1:

> Decoration, Formatting, Invisible: If non-text content is pure decoration,
> is used only for visual formatting, or is not presented to users, then it
> is implemented in a way that it can be ignored by assistive technology.

So, in your opinion, what would be the less bad solution? I would say a
verbose alt is better than an empty alt, but this solution is not perfect,
because the image really does not provide any information, it is just for
decoration. And the caption is often present just to give the credits of
the photo. Which is not a relevant information to understand the article.

Is this problem solved in HTML5 with the figcaption attribute? I would say
yes and put an empty alt if a figcaption is present. Did I understand

Thanks by advance for your answers!



    *Armony ALTINIER 聶和美*
Directrice d'ACS Horizons
Consultante Chine et accessibilité du Web
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Received on Wednesday, 15 August 2012 06:07:41 UTC
