RE: dated WD snapshot of alt techniques document

Two hot topics still not present in this otherwise excellent guide:

1.      CSS icon images. Often CSS .background images are used on links or buttons to indicate e.g. file type (when link points to a file rather than a webpage), or when link points to a page that requires a log in (background image of a lock). We should make a note of this in the guide, explain why you cannot use an alt tag on these images (when included usin CSS, these are useless, at least for now) and propose a few alternatives (1. Make the background image into an actual <img> tag with appropriate alt, 2. Use title element of link or button 3. Add text to link or button text, either visible or hidden). If interested, I would be happy to write a draft of this section.

2.      I often get questions on whether symbols such as copyright or trademark have to be in the alt text for an image when visible in the image, and whether omitting them is a WCAG violation. (functionally, when image is part of a link for instance, I do not see how this information is relevant to its meaning to the user, however users may want to know if an image contains a trademark or other legal symbol, why they would want to know is not obvious to me) 

I have read the WCAG spec and it is vague on this topic, but the W3C/WCAG websites do not include these symbols in their alt text). Perhaps this topic is left unintentionally vague, but if I am misunderstanding and there are guidelines, it would be good to include them.

 

Cheers, keep up the good work!

 

From: Schnabel, Stefan [mailto:stefan.schnabel@sap.com] 
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2014 6:34 AM
To: Steve Faulkner; HTML Accessibility Task Force; public-html-admin@w3.org; Philippe Le Hégaret; Michael[tm] Smith; Janina Sajka; Chaals McCathieNevile; Sam Ruby; Paul Cotton; Maciej Stachowiak; W3C WAI Protocols & Formats
Subject: RE: dated WD snapshot of alt techniques document

 

I’m sold. Most comprehensive and competent W3C techniques guide for the topic so far.

 

Only thing missing are references + more examples with ARIA properties as alternative. Example: “1.8 A purely decorative image that doesn't add any information “ or “ 2.3 Using an empty alt attribute alt="" ” to indicate decorative images using role=”presentation <http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/roles#presentation> ”.

 

Regards

Stefan

 

From: Steve Faulkner [mailto:faulkner.steve@gmail.com] 
Sent: Donnerstag, 16. Oktober 2014 11:58
To: HTML Accessibility Task Force; public-html-admin@w3.org; Philippe Le Hégaret; Michael[tm] Smith; Janina Sajka; Chaals McCathieNevile; Sam Ruby; Paul Cotton; Maciej Stachowiak; W3C WAI Protocols & Formats
Subject: Re: dated WD snapshot of alt techniques document

 

Apologies, please use the following URL
http://rawgit.com/w3c/alt-techniques/54c868254d49bac4ca1efa7d9907cc85bfa0a3cd/index.html

I made a mistake in the update of the HTML5 reference and have fixed accordingly https://github.com/w3c/alt-techniques/commit/54c868254d49bac4ca1efa7d9907cc85bfa0a3cd




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Regards

SteveF

HTML 5.1 <http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/> 

 

On 16 October 2014 10:37, Steve Faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all,

in an effort to break the inertia surrounding this document I have created a dated WD snapshot:

http://rawgit.com/w3c/alt-techniques/c56027b5d9125b40695c7fbc128af918515273f7/index.html

It incorporates Janina's requests:

removal of details/summary advice

update reference to pint to HTML /TR

I have added links to outstanding bugs with special reference to those about longdesc.

I also updated one example and closed the related bug [https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=25961], as I consider it wholly uncontroversial and an improvement on the current example.

I consider once this WD is published the group(s) should swiftly appoint new editor(s). I would suggest that any editors appointed have a good working knowledge of alt techniques.

It is my understanding that both Shane McCarron and David McDonald have volunteered and I personally have confidence that both of them working as a team would serve as excellent replacements.




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Regards

SteveF

HTML 5.1 <http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/>