RE: Using Alt Text on the Link Element

David Best wrote:
>
> What is the WCAG2.0 rule for using Alt Text in an <a> element?
>

Alt text is never applied to the <a> (anchor) element - it is non-conformant.

> The situation I have been confronted with is a <h2> element followed
> by an <img> element enclosed in an <a> element. The template generator
> automatically places the <h2> text into the <img> Alt Text attribute,
> but this creates a duplicate output for the screen reader user, and
> the author would like to make the <a>/<img> element invisible so as
> to eliminate the duplication.

This appears to be a problem with your template.

> If you put Alt Text in the <a> element,
> then the screen reader reads out the Alt Text as expected, but if you
> use no text (alt="") in the <a> element, the screen reader reads out
> the <a> element link location. Unlike the <img> element that becomes
> invisible. In this case the <a> link is simply a larger screen shot
> image, and not of any value to the screen reader user.

I will rework your code to what it 'should' be:

<div id="screensteps">
  <h2 id="StepTitle">Step Title</h2>
    <div class="image clearfix">
      <a href="Full_Screen_Shot_Image.png">
        <img alt="Image: Full Screen" src="Small_Magnifier_Icon.png" height="301" width="409" />
      </a>
      <p>Text description of the full screen shot image.</p>
    </div>
</div>

Because the link around the magnifier icon goes to a specific asset, the alt text of that image needs to define what/were that link is going to. This is another example of what is outlined here: http://dev.w3.org/html5/alt-techniques/#sec1 (see example 1.3)

Hope this helps.

JF


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Received on Wednesday, 5 March 2014 16:59:57 UTC