Re: [html-techs-tf] caption vs alt

I have also seen situations where the caption for a figure says everything
that a text alternative would say, e.g., a screen shot with the caption
describing the significant content of the screen shot.

Not every figure caption is an appropriate text alternative, but when one
is, why repeat the information?

Loretta


On Sat, Jan 11, 2014 at 11:26 AM, Steve Faulkner
<faulkner.steve@gmail.com>wrote:

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>> Hi everyone,
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>> I'm looking into an HTML5 accessibility technique [1] for the Figure & Figcaption to meet SC 1.1.1, but I'm not sure it should exist?
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>> I assume the technique should be for the part of the HTML spec "4.7.1.1.16 When a text alternative is not available at the time of publication" [2]
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>> However, if we're writing a technique that is trying to meet SC 1.1.1, I don't think applying alternative text within a figcaption would be suitable. If you are adding alternative text, shouldn't it be on the alt attribute?
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>> I don't see how a technique could be applied to a situation where you can't add something.
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>> Closely related to this are the "HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives", 4.2 [3], which provides two examples that are intended to be equivalent:
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>> <img src="example.jpg" alt="Shadow like figures and a graffiti tag drawn on the walls of a partially demolished building, illuminated by the light from a street lamp.">
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>> And then:
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>> <figure>
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>> <img src="shadows.jpg">
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>> <figcaption> Shadow like figures and a graffiti tag drawn on the walls of a
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>>  partially demolished building, illuminated by the light from a street lamp (photo). </figcaption>
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>> </figure>
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>> The idea being that the caption is equivalent to the alt, when the alt is missing.
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>> However, I think this is fundamentally at odds with the intent of alt text: to be for people who can't see the image.
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> The situation is that in some circumstances the ability to provide a text
> alternative using the recommended method  (alt attribute) is not available
> to the author. This is often the case on photo sharing sites (for example).
> Quite often authors do have the ability to provide a caption, in this case
> provision of a text alternative via the caption mechanism is a suggested
> workaround. It is not ideal, but its the best that an author who wants to
> provide a text alternative can do under the circumstances.
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>> A far more realistic example that I could see regular authors doing is assuming that people can see the image:
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>> <figure>
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>> <img src="shadows.jpg">
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>> <figcaption>The local graffiti artists have been busy!</figcaption>
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>> </figure>
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>> But what we would want is examples more like 9.1 [4], which would be something like:
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>> <figure>
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>> <img src="shadows.jpg" alt=" Shadow like figures and a graffiti tag drawn on the walls of a
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>>  partially demolished building, illuminated by the light from a street lamp..">
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>> <figcaption>The local graffiti artists have been busy!</figcaption>
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>> </figure>
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>> I think it comes down to what relationship we think figcaption should have to the image. I had thought it would be a similar relationship to aria-describedby, which adds description but is not the label itself.
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>> I can see figcaption having a technique under SC 1.3.1, but should we have a technique under SC 1.1.1?
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>> -Alastair
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>> 1] http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/wiki/Techniques/HTML5
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>> 2] http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/embedded-content-0.html#when-a-text-alternative-is-not-available-at-the-time-of-publication
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>> 3] http://www.w3.org/TR/html-alt-techniques/#m6
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>> 4] http://www.w3.org/TR/html-alt-techniques/#hbe
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>> --
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> Regards
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> SteveF
> HTML 5.1 <http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/>
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