[Bug 10481] Default role of <IMG> should be "img"

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=10481





--- Comment #24 from Leif Halvard Silli <xn--mlform-iua@xn--mlform-iua.no>  2010-09-09 17:56:39 ---
(In reply to comment #22)
> (In reply to comment #1)

> > Rationale: For most images, role=img is unsuitable, because the <img> doesn't
> > represent an image, but something else (e.g. text as part of a link).
> 
> You are countermanding your own semantics. The first sentence for the img
> element states:
> 
> An img element represents an image. 

Regarding "represents": Several other places in the spec, the word 'represents'
has a link to a paragraph with a definition of 'represents': [*]

]] 
In the absence of style-layer rules to the contrary (e.g. author style sheets),
user agents are expected to render an element so that it conveys to the user
the meaning that the element represents, as described by this specification. 
[[

[*] http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/rendering#represents


And in a recent bug (that I unfortunately was unable to relocate, despite
searching for it a lot ...), Ian explained to Maciej that CSS can used to used
to adjust the semantics stylistically. While ARIA can be used to futher adjust
the semantics, for AT users. HTML even has some features of its own for
adjusting the semantics for AT users: an empty @alt means that an <img>  is not
represented as an image to AT users.


> Either an img is an image, in which case it is an image to every user agent,
> regardless of author intent. Or it is not, in which case, it is not an image to
> every user agent.


Even if the title of this bug is 'default role of <img> should be "img"', the
bug is only about <img> elements which do not have an empty @alt attribute.

With that qualification, I believe that you do indeed point at an inconsistency
in Ian's line of argumentation inside this bug report: Whenever there isn't
something AT specific (such as an empty @alt) which modifies the the semantics
of the <img> element, then an <img> represents an image, and thus its role
should be "img".

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Received on Thursday, 9 September 2010 17:56:43 UTC