[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #34635: WordPress image's title is not alt

[WordPress Trac]

#34635: WordPress image's title is not alt
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 Reporter:  odie2             |       Owner:  joemcgill
     Type:  defect (bug)      |      Status:  assigned
 Priority:  normal            |   Milestone:  Future Release
Component:  Media             |     Version:  4.3
 Severity:  normal            |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  needs-patch       |     Focuses:  ui, accessibility, javascript
  early                       |
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Changes (by joemcgill):

 * keywords:  needs-patch => needs-patch early
 * milestone:  4.6 => Future Release


Comment:

 I think the ultimate fix here will be to change the current expected
 behavior of the `alt` fallbacks when inserting images from the media
 library into post content and possibly pre-filling alt attributes when an
 image is uploaded to the media library. However, I think we'll need more
 time to get feedback and do some user testing before landing on a
 solution, so we should take another look at this early in the next release
 cycle.

 A few additional things to consider:

 1. My understanding is that setting the `alt` attribute to and empty
 string, like `alt=""` should really only happen when the image is not a
 key part of the content (i.e., decorative images). I worry a bit that
 we're going to end up with a lot of content creators adding empty `alt`
 attributes to images that really should be "seen" by assistive technology.

 2. We should also consider how `alt` fallbacks work for images that are
 generated on the front end rather than being a part of the post content.
 For example, featured images generated by `the_post_thumbnail()`. Having
 consistent behaviors will help with user expectation.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/34635#comment:18>
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