Our friend Jared Smith at WebAIM has sparked some discussion from his post Alt text and linked images. Towards the end of the post, a question arises: does an image with a caption require an ALT attribute, even if the ALT attribute would contain the same text as the caption? I say yes! Another issue is HTML 5 working group’s proposal to make the alt attribute optional for images. I say no!
Web Axeblog and podcast on web accessibility
One reply on “Alt text and linked images”
Thanks for the link. We will probably have to agree to disagree regarding alt text for images with captions. Accessibility guidelines simply require that an alternative be provided – it does not have to be through the alt attribute.
Most screen reader users I’ve worked with don’t care about ‘experiencing’ an image. They want the content. Giving it to them twice helps neither the content nor the user experience.