Re: [w3c/wcag] "Short" and "Long" can be misleading (SC 1.1.1) (Issue #2117)

Two thoughts

1) Perhaps use Word vs characters? 

These are good rules of thumb - for English  - but may not be for other languages.  
- Maybe we should use word count instead of characters? 

Another vote for words is the following.  Which is better?

 -  Emmanuel being dragged away from the dungeon by her great-grandmother.
 -  She is moved away from it by her.  

This is pretty extreme example but — sometimes long words convey information better but increase character count  (also a problem with "simple language" metrics that use syllable counts). 

A bigger problem is languages where the characters per word vary greatly. 


2)  Perhaps recommend short summary then  any IMPORTANT detail - vs  short. 

  I think it is better to convey all the important information in an image rather than worry about character count.   For example — if there is a diagram in a powerpoint (or other presentation slide)  it is better to convey all of the IMPORTANT information int the diagram than it is to say something like  "diagram showing the relative sales by sector for the 15  most common sales strategies"   or   "critical stress points in our product"    which only lets the person know what it is that everyone else knows but they do not. 

I often find that I have to create long alt texts for images in order to provide individuals who are blind with all of the same information as everyone else.  I always start with a short summative description - followed  by the details.   They can always move off of the picture if they are not interested in the details (like sighted persons can look away if they are not interested in details ) but not including the details in order to keep the description short —  does not seem to me to be making it more accessible. 

Best 

gregg

> On Oct 29, 2021, at 10:10 AM, Jonathan Avila <notifications@github.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> I think it might be good to help people
> 
> understand when each one is needed
> limitations of text alternatives using approaches like the alt attribute
> Best practice is for text < 150 characters
> Ideal amount is probably 75 or less for alt text
> Ideally for text that doesn't need structure
> how they should relate to each other if a description is needed/used
> —
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