Re: [EXTERNAL] RE: 1.1.1, Text Alternative, Title Attribute OK?

Kevin, I think you're in danger of getting caught up in words that mean one thing to you and a different thing to someone else.

You said an svg can't have "alt text". Presumably, you meant it can't have an HTML alt attribute. The term "alt text" has no technical meaning but is used by many, if not most, people, as a short form of "text alternative". Under that interpretation, WCAG 1.1.1 does mandate alt text because it says the non-text content should have a "text alternative". What it doesn't mandate is an alt attribute.

I hope I'm not coming across as unnecessarily picky here. I'm saying this because I've had a lot of conversations about text alternatives that have foundered on the rocks of the word "alt".

All the best,
Mark

________________________________
From: kevin@access1in5.co.nz <kevin@access1in5.co.nz>
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2026 05:07
To: 'Patrick H. Lauke' <redux@splintered.co.uk>; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] 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
--
Patrick H. Lauke

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