Re: img@relaxed CP [was: CfC: Close ISSUE-206: meta-generator by Amicable Resolution]

On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 2:36 AM, Janina Sajka <janina@rednote.net> wrote:
> Well, perhaps not. PF does not accept this use case as valid, neither
> did the WAI Ad Hoc that provided guidance on alt three years ago, nor
> has the TF agreed this use case is valid.
>
> Quoting from Ted's CP:
>
> "The spec currently allows conformance checkers to waive alt=""
> conformance requirements on pages with <meta name=generator> present.
> This feature is intended to allow sites like Flickr (which accept bulk
> photo uploads from their users and can't reasonably require their users
> to provide alternative text) to check the conformance of their Web
> applications without being inundated with warnings or errors that the
> site developers can't do anything about. If we don't allow such sites to
> do this, they have and will add bogus alt="" text to their pages simply
> to pass in popular conformance checkers, thus harming the accessibility
> of their pages."
>
> This paragraph contains three false assertions:
>
> 1.)     The 2009 guidance document from the WAI Ad Hoc provided a solution that
> that site developers could adopt which would satisfy alt concerns when
> individual authors failed to provide individualized alt text.
> http://www.w3.org/2009/06/Text-Alternatives-in-HTML5.html
>
> The assertion that large site developers are hapless victims is false.
> Repeating this false assertion will not make it true.
>
> 2.)     It is asserted that developers would fill alt with bogus text.
> But, no evidence has yet been provided in support of this claim. This
> assertion is also false, and repeating it will also not make it true.
>
> 3.)     If bogus text were inserted, it is asserted this would cause
> harm to a11y? But, what harm? This has never been demonstrated and is,
> in fact, also a false assertion whose repetition will not make it true.
>
> This use case is a bogus, red herring.

FWIW what Flickr are doing _today_ when they don't have text appears
to be just setting alt="photo".

Photo page of latest upload on Flickr at time of writing has

   <img id="liquid-photo" alt="photo" aria-describedby="title_div"
width="640" height="427"
src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8005/7688297284_4a72f82f25_z.jpg"
style="visibility: visible; ">

    <h1 id="title_div" property="dc:title" class="photo-title">IMG_7354.jpg</h1>

    https://secure.flickr.com/photos/sarahannward/7688297284/

They link to that page with:

    <img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8005/7688297284_4a72f82f25_t.jpg"
width="100" height="67" alt="IMG_7354.jpg by sarahannward"
class="pc_img" border="0">

    https://secure.flickr.com/photos/

--
Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis

Received on Wednesday, 1 August 2012 02:04:40 UTC