[wp-meta] [Making WordPress.org] #6173: Add ALT text field to upload form

[Making WordPress.org]

#6173: Add ALT text field to upload form
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 Reporter:  alexstine        |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  enhancement      |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal           |   Milestone:
Component:  Photo Directory  |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  needs-patch      |
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Comment (by coffee2code):

 Otto's explanation pretty much covers our intent as to why only one
 description field was ever presented. There could have been more clarity
 on the matter sooner, but admittedly at the onset of the Directory it
 wasn't clear how much of an onus on moderators we were willing to require
 to help actually ensure the provided text resembled usable and appropriate
 ALT text.

 Anyhow, I'm about to push up changes that implement everything according
 to the seeming consensus.

 Here's a summary of what will be changed:

 - To the upload form:
   - Rename the field from "Description" to "Alternative Text"
   - Make the field required
   - Increase field's input limit to 350 characters (this can be expanded
 or omitted later)
   - Display the field as a textarea
   - Add help text that explicitly requests that the contents of the photo
 be described

 - To the single photo page (the only place the text wasn't provided in the
 `alt` attribute for the `img`):
   - Output the text as the `alt` attribute value for the photo
   - Add `aria-hidden="true"` to the `figcaption`, since it is visually
 displaying the ALT text and duplicative for assistive devices
   - Prefix the displayed ALT text below the photo with "Alternative Text:"

 Relatedly, here are some separate efforts that will likely stem from these
 changes:

 - We may need some front-end mechanism (a submission/comment form) that
 solicits for ALT suggestions from logged-in users. This form may be open
 to all photos that haven't been closed to further input (i.e. once a photo
 has definitely had its ALT text defined and verified by a moderator, we
 likely don't need additional edits, or if we did it would be through a
 separate "suggest-an-edit" form).
 - If front-end suggestions are desired, moderators will have the added
 effort (shared, or overseen by a dedicated sub-team) to handle incoming
 ALT text suggestions.
 - Moderators will have the added effort during normal photo moderation of
 assessing the submitted photo descriptions through the lens of being ALT
 text, and most likely having to write the ALT text themselves with cues
 from the submitted text.
 - Moderators will have to plan an effort or sub-team to go through all
 photos and improve existing ALT text (and also provide missing ALT text if
 they aren't planning to solely rely on front-end submissions)
 - We may look into using AI to generate the ALT text, though likely only
 as a draft that will need moderation prior to actually being shown on the
 site.
 - The team's handbook will likely need amending to address assessing, and
 in most cases, composing ALT text for each photo. The Learn team is
 [https://github.com/WordPress/Learn/issues/1463 working on a documentation
 for how to produce good ALT text] which can be worked on in tandem and
 eventually get referenced.
 - When the aforementioned Learn documentation on how to write good ALT
 text is completed, the upload form can link to it so contributors have
 something to reference.

 @alexstine: I welcome any feedback regarding the single-photo page output
 for including the ALT text in the `img` tag, but also displaying it on the
 page. In this context, we ideally do not want assistive technologies to
 read out the same text twice.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/6173#comment:13>
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