Re: level of detail in alt, for a "self-describing" SVG

Hello Chaals,
I've been a bit slow replying to your comment, so my apologies. How about
the following to make the alt text both more concise and hopefully more
readable:

"Diagram of a fictitious university degree credential. It shows a
Credential component on top, connected, via a proof, to a Signature
component on the bottom. The top component has data identifying the issuing
university, the type of credential and date and time of issue, and details
of the alumni person holding the university's credential. The bottom
Signature component holds a type of "RsaSignature2018", a timestamp, the
university's public key, and a signature code and nonce."

That isn't a lot shorter than the existing alt text, and I'm sure it could
still be improved. But it is hopefully more readable and easier to
understand, and conveys the two part structure. And it still allows people
to do what I did when I first saw your diagram - I had to look at the names
of the properties to work out what the diagram as a whole was saying. So it
is important to list all the names (but as you say, not necessarily their
values), so other people can do that.

But as someone pointed out earlier, it would be even better to show this
description visibly on screen, for all users who might prefer it to this
rather complex diagram, rather than as an alt text just for screen reader
users. I think all diagrams as complex as this, and more so, should just
have the few words for the alt text and give the detailed description as
text for all users. Lots of people don't find diagrams of this sort very
helpful.

Oh, and thank for explaining that graph bit!
Regards, Guy