RE: 1.1.1, Text Alternative, Title Attribute OK?

Assuming you're talking about inline SVG?

I don't think anyone credible ever said that 1.1.1 mandated the use of the alt attribute on graphical content , but, having used a screen reader now for a very long time, I do recall JAWS having a setting which allowed users to choose whether the alt, title, longest, or which attribute occurred first in the code to be announced as a text alternative which made a big difference back in the day.

I just checked and the setting is still there, but doesn't appear to have any impact when navigating the web probably because the computation algorithm now applies ... 

In any case, what is driving this trend? Is it a misguided belief that having a tooltip on hover makes everything more accessible?





assuming your thinking about inline SVG?

JAWS doesn't announce a title attribute value in chrome without role="img" 



-----Original Message-----
From: kevin@access1in5.co.nz <kevin@access1in5.co.nz> 
Sent: Wednesday, March 4, 2026 4:07 PM
To: 'Patrick H. Lauke' <redux@splintered.co.uk>; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: RE: 1.1.1, Text Alternative, Title Attribute OK?

I'm thinking more about svg which I'm seeing more often. Obviously it could be given a role="img" but still can't have alt text - it gets a text equivalent using other means (title or aria). So 1.1.1 doesn't mandate alt text - it mandates equivalent text.
The aria spec certainly strongly suggest adding the role and a label or labelledby but there are other valid options.

-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick H. Lauke <redux@splintered.co.uk> 
Sent: Wednesday, 4 March 2026 12:45 pm
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: Re: 1.1.1, Text Alternative, Title Attribute OK?

On 03/03/2026 21:31, kevin@access1in5.co.nz wrote:
> I've also noted that there has been a greater use of images which are not <img> so alt text is not allowed for them. Title is an acceptable way to label such graphics.

Depending on the exact code you're talking about ... that's not quite accurate I think. If it's just an arbitrary <span> or similar, just sticking a title attribute on it won't expose that as an accessible name for the <span>, unless I'm misremembering. Ditto for adding something like aria-label to an arbitrary element that is not normally labellable.

P
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Patrick H. Lauke

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Received on Wednesday, 4 March 2026 07:30:35 UTC