[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #47456: Improve the user interface to ensure correct usage of the image alt text

[WordPress Trac]

#47456: Improve the user interface to ensure correct usage of the image alt text
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 Reporter:  afercia                              |       Owner:  joedolson
     Type:  defect (bug)                         |      Status:  accepted
 Priority:  high                                 |   Milestone:  5.5
Component:  Media                                |     Version:
 Severity:  normal                               |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  wpcampus-report needs-design-        |     Focuses:
  feedback needs-patch                           |  accessibility
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Comment (by azaozz):

 Replying to [comment:26 apedog]:
 > This is assuming a bit much about how people use WordPress.

 Hmm, this assumes people use WP to create web pages, and upload images to
 include on these web pages, posts, product descriptions, etc. Commonly
 images are either stand-alone (surrounded by text) or grouped in
 galleries, sliders, etc.

 Another, less common case is when images uploaded by the authors are used
 as backgrounds, icons, etc. In many of these cases the image is added from
 CSS (no alt attribute) or the alt should be empty as the images are purely
 decorative.

 There are certainly edge cases for use of uploaded images. These are
 typically added by plugins. In these cases the plugin should be able to
 support adding of appropriate alt text.

 > Also it puts quite an onus on authors to make up an alt text **every
 time** an image is re-used.

 Right. However this is the proper way to do things. See the ticket
 description and the W3C tutorial: https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/images
 /decision-tree/.

 > Not all authors/content-creators understand or care about the a11y
 requirements of the 'alt' attribute.

 Yeah, as @joedolson mentioned in Slack, this is also "an educational
 challenge". WP will have to find a good way to educate the authors that
 having good, appropriate alt text enhances their content, and having none,
 misleading, out-of-context alt text can "harm" their content.

 Speaking of reused images, I went through the last ~100 images I used in
 posts and only 3 were reused. Just curious, could you count how many
 images (from the media library) you have reused in your recent posts? :)

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/47456#comment:27>
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