Images in the stream do not have a alternatieve text. The alternative text is used by a screen reader to read aloud the purpose of the image for a visually impaired user. A file name is rarely of use, as everything is read out, including underscore and slash.
For the time being we propose to include images in posts with an empty alt-text. We see that in the majority of cases they are decorative in nature and accompany longer texts that can be understood and discussed without the images.
We understand that this is not an accessible end-point. In the future we wish to improve the image upload widgets to allow for alt-texts and contain a space to explain to users how to write a proper alt-text. However, we don't have the resources to make such an implementation at this time.
We believe that making the alt-texts of images in posts empty text ("") is at least an improvement from the current status quo which uses the filenames.
| Comment | File | Size | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schermafbeelding 2018-02-21 om 14.28.17.png | 563.18 KB | basvanos |
Comments
Comment #2
basvanos commentedComment #3
basvanos commentedComment #4
basvanos commentedComment #5
ok_lyndsey commentedAn alt field option is a really good idea, however it's a priority when an image is used to convey information and should be ignored if it's for decoration. As these images come from the banner background in most cases they are purely decorative so they wouldn't need an alt. Having said that I have created a bunch of images that have icons such as a link icon, file icon, document icon etc so that a) I get some easy banners, and b) I am visually conveying information about the content.
If people use the headers for text they will need the alternative text field. My recommendation would be to add this however do not make it a required field (there has been a fair bit of debate on this in the Drupal project)
Comment #6
basvanos commentedHe Lyndsey, sorry for my late response. Yes i agree we should make it optional so the user has the possibility to add it. This has not a high prio, but it would be a nice addition.
Comment #7
basvanos commentedComment #8
basvanos commentedComment #9
xinyuma commentedComment #10
xinyuma commentedThis is an important issue indeed. As to the solution, we do need to balance between the accessibility and the ease of use of this feature. Maybe some AI solution that create alternative text automatically would be the best solution.
Comment #11
kingdutchThe proposed solution for this probably doesn't change. However, currently the alt text used in post images is the filename which is often even worse than having no alt text at all.
Also changing this to a bug report instead of a feature request because adding accessibility shouldn't be a feature but lacking accessibility is a bug :)
Comment #12
kingdutchWe've had some internal discussion and come to an intermediate solution that we want to revisit in the future for a bigger overhaul of the post widget. The issue summary contains the updated solution and further explanation.
Comment #13
kingdutchComment #14
kingdutchhttps://github.com/goalgorilla/open_social/pull/2034
Comment #15
kingdutch