Re: [orca-list] Image without empty alt should be ignored by Orca

[Steve Repsher <steverep gmail com>]

There is no guidance in the ARIA specification regarding how the alt attribute should be handled as it is not an ARIA attribute.  However, there is significant documentation in the HTML specification:

https://www.w3.org/TR/html51/semantics-embedded-content.html#alt-text

First, it is a validation error not to provide an alt attribute at all, so the behavior to recognize the image and not skip it is desired because browsers don't enforce such validation.  On the other hand, developers are advised in the spec to handle purely decorative images with an empty alt attribute (i.e. alt=""):

https://www.w3.org/TR/html51/semantics-embedded-content.html#a-purely-decorative-image-that-doesnt-add-any-information

So in that case, skipping it altogether would be the desired user behavior.  Arguments about how smart that is aside, that's the spec and the expectation of developers trying to consider accessibility.  Note this is in step with WCAG criterion 1.1.1 and its associated techniques.

Also, the CSS specification has a similar section when talking about the content property for the ::before and ::after pseudo elements, which can have alt text in the form: {content: ... / "alt text"}.

On Tue, Jun 6, 2017 at 3:19 PM, Alex ARNAUD <alexarnaud hypra fr> wrote:

Le 06/06/2017 à 17:55, Storm Dragon a écrit :

Howdy,
While the specification may call for skiping images without alt tags, I
believe Orca handles this in the correct manner. The only time a screen
reader truly fails in my opinion is when it doesn't let you know there
is something on the screen. Saying image when it encounters an unlabeled
picture at least lets you know there's something there even if Orca
isn't able to tell you what it is. This is invaluable in helping debug
websites too. What if the picture is something required to access the
site, and they just forgot to add an alt tag. Now, we could tell the
site admin that there is an unlabeled image. If this  valuable feedback
were taken away, we could only say "it doesn't work, there's nothing
there." As a website admin myself, I know which feedback I would rather
receive.

I understand your point. Maybe Sylvie has more insights about this.

Best regards.
--
Alex ARNAUD
Visual-Impairment Project Manager
Hypra - "Humanizing technology"
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