- From: David MacDonald <david100@sympatico.ca>
- Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 16:27:28 -0500
- To: <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>, <public-html-a11y@w3.org>
- CC: "'Steve Faulkner'" <sfaulkner@paciellogroup.com>, <kirsten@can-adapt.com>
Steve Faulkner and I had a good discussion about figure/figcaption elements during the html5 call today. There are a few important things that may help bring clarity to the discussion. The HTML 5 spec only has one specific use case when the figcaption could replace alt text. And that is when the alt text is not available at the time of publication. It includes two important notes. ======= Note: Such cases are to be kept to an absolute minimum. If there is *even the slightest possibility* of the author having the ability to provide real alternative text, then *it would not be acceptable to omit the alt attribute* Note: Since some users cannot use images at all (e.g. because they are blind) the alt attribute is only allowed to be omitted when no text alternative is available and none can be made available, as in the above examples. " http://tinyurl.com/ox8uhys ===== I must confess that I was among those who thought HTML5 said the <figcaption> element was freely interchangeable with the ALT inside a <figure> element, even though the limitation is spelled out in the document in two places. HTML5 provides no basis for a WCAG Sufficient technique on this. I think this will also help inform the greater discussion around F65. Because I believe most of us thought that there already was an alternative to ALT text allowed in HTML 5 which set a precedent. Any discussion we have about allowing substitutes for ALT, (aria-labelledby, aria-label ...) will have to stand on their own merits without a precedent in HTML 5. Testing of figcaption with assistive technology is here http://davidmacd.com/test/figure.html Cheers, David MacDonald CanAdapt Solutions Inc. Tel: 613.235.4902 http://ca.linkedin.com/in/davidmacdonald100 www.Can-Adapt.com Adapting the web to all users Including those with disabilities
Received on Thursday, 16 January 2014 21:28:03 UTC