Missing Alt Attribute on WordPress.org Image Elements #462
Comments
ryelle
added
the
Accessibility
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@ryelle - makes sense to close this issue. I added a note to tune future scans to exclude scanning media items as pages. I would also caution to say “we're using alt attributes correctly everywhere else”. This test just flag media items that didn’t have the Unfortunately, I haven’t come across a good test to alert us to see if an image is truly decorative when alt text is empty. Most people choose to just look at every image that has |
They were determined to be "decorative" by the a11y team, using the same criteria as we do for the about page— the content near it is describing what the image is showing. See #425 for that request.
Of course, I'm well aware that alt text is more than just missing-or-there, and you can't automated-scan for meaning-related issues like whether the alt text is relevant. But I'm also (pleasantly) surprised that it didn't flag any other missing alt texts on the site. |
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Yes! It should be noted that the automated report turned up a lot fewer issues than expected. I will followup with the A11y team. |
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The image cited by @bbertucc under the heading "And Much More" is different from all the other images on that page, in that it isn't accompanied by any supporting text. Instead, the image contains all of the information described by the heading. So, right now, for a screen reader experience, there's a heading "And Much More", then an empty image, and no additional features. There's too much text in that panel to be really effective as alt text, and it also fails on other points - namely, 1.4.5: Images of Text. Ideally, that panel would be a grid format with text & accompanying images. However, lacking that, there needs to be a bulleted list that provides all of the feature points on the page in simple text. Right now, it's clearly not an equal experience. |
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The feature-grid image exists as a sort of summary of the whole page itself, one that you can take with you (save as, share elsewhere). In that sense, the grid shows glimpses of items covered in detail in the page itself: Major highlights:
Minor highlights:
Additional features:
If we were to add a text list of features below, it would be duplicative of what's already on the page. So that screen readers won't have to hear the same list of features twice, would the following alt text be reasonable?
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@jasmussen If the image serves as a visual summary for sighted users, than the same should be available non-visually. Or, to put it another way, if the image version isn't unnecessary duplication for sighted users, than why would a text summary be unnecessary duplication for screen reader users? The intent is to ensure that users have equal access to the information; summaries are useful for all users, so I think that yes, the full description should be made available. That doesn't necessarily mean it has to be fully revealed by default; it could be inside a details/summary block as "image description", or something to that effect. |
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Sure, happy to go with a details-collapsed summary. What I meant is, it's one thing to quickly glance over the grid, it just seems another to have to verbosely have read-aloud every item inside, repeated. Simply suggesting there might be nuance; ultimately someone who uses a screen reader daily would know best, and I'd defer to them. |
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There is no such thing as a "quick glance" for a screen reader, because everything is linear. The important thing is the content is available. And personally speaking, while I can quickly glance at the grid, it takes time and attention to actually get any information out of it, and that's not really different for a person using a screen reader with a list of relevant details. A person who uses a screen reader can tell you whether or not the text is useful for them, but literally cannot tell you whether or not it's a good equivalence for the image. |
Description:
An issue has been identified where image elements on several web pages lack the alt attribute. This attribute is essential for web accessibility as it provides alternative text for screen readers, ensuring that visually impaired users can understand the content conveyed by images.
Current Code:
Here is a CSV that contains all the items with missing alt text and URLs related to them:
query_result.csv
Correcting Alt Text:
Alt text for many of the images will be straight-forward (for example: a McDonald's logo can be "Logo for McDonalds"). That said, here is an article that I appreciate around creating useful alt text: https://adrianroselli.com/2024/05/my-approach-to-alt-text.html
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