[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #55535: Pre-populate Image Alt Text field with IPTC Photo Metadata Standard Alt Text
WordPress Trac
noreply at wordpress.org
Sat Oct 7 21:56:16 UTC 2023
#55535: Pre-populate Image Alt Text field with IPTC Photo Metadata Standard Alt
Text
-------------------------------------+----------------------------
Reporter: eatingrules | Owner: joedolson
Type: enhancement | Status: accepted
Priority: normal | Milestone: 6.5
Component: Media | Version:
Severity: minor | Resolution:
Keywords: needs-patch 2nd-opinion | Focuses: accessibility
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Comment (by mmzeroexpcom):
Replying to [comment:45 joedolson]:
> @carolinescribely Do you know of any image sources who are actively
using this field? For example, stock imagery providers, photography
studios, etc. - a place where we could look at a wide variety of images to
examine.
>
> The accessibility team's preferred approach to this is to add a media
data panel that can expose this and other important metadata without
automatically assigning it to fields that will be output on the front end,
so that the user can choose to use this information, but it isn't
automatic.
Hello
@joedolson and @carolinescribely (cc @sergueifomine and @brendanquinn ) !
I have been following this thread off and on and working with Caroline and
have finally had a chance to chime in.
The website: https://imagesnippets.com makes use of the embedded alt-text
information extensively and has done so since it was introduced as part of
the iptc standard.
While I cannot guarantee that every search on the ImageSnippets site will
return images in which a user has included alt-text, you can perform a
search on the front page of that site for a variety of topics and may find
it in any number of images. We have over 80,000 images in ImageSnippets.
You can also create an account and experiment with
uploading/downloading/searching for images and their metadata.
However, what might be easier is if you take a look at this page:
https://margaretwarren.us --- the images on this page are pulled into a
word press block editor plug-in gallery that pulls image links from
ImageSnippets and thus all included, embedded metadata is included in the
linked file. In our case, a user can log into ImageSnippets and add or
modify alt-text at any time and it will be updated in the file and the
link hosted at ImageSnippets.
One of the reasons we have created the block editor that works this way,
is because of the historic lack of good word press support for iptc-
metadata in the media library even when imagemagick is also installed for
other metadata plug-ins. It would be really nice if the exif/iptc metadata
were natively handled better in the wp media library for sure.
We additionally copy the alt-text field from the image into the html alt-
tag attribute in the block editor, but to access lots of embedded metadata
in these files, you can click on each image and and right-click download
each image. Most of the images on that site are populated with alt-text
data as well as many other iptc-xmp fields.
Additionally, I list below about 10 other images from my own account
linked here that are populated. We have many other users who use alt-text
extensively through our interface.
Below, each html link matches each .jpg (or .jpeg) link. If you click on
the html link, you can flip the image and read the difference between the
description and the alt-text field. You can also download each image from
this link to examine and you can also just use the URL for the image
itself... i.e. all the same and all images contain embedded metadata. For
one image, I intentionally used an image that has alt-text, but not a
'description' if that helps in your examination.
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/fletcher_flair_glenmoor.html
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/fletcher_flair_glenmoor.jpg
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/metadata.html
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/metadata.jpg
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/P1070330.html
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/P1070330.jpg
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/j_loom.html
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/j_loom.jpg
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/P1010140.html
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/P1010140.JPG
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/gg_circa78.html
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/gg_circa78.jpg
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/fletcher%20072.html
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/fletcher%20072.jpg
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/FOOu91MXoAAIguo.html
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/FOOu91MXoAAIguo.jpeg
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/20220322_190336.html
(intentionally without 'description' but has alt-text embedded)
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/20220322_190336.jpg
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/20160911_183452.html
https://imagesnippets.com/imgtag/images/info@margaretwarren.us/20160911_183452.jpg
You can also use the iptc tool: https://getpmd.iptc.org/getiptcpmd.html
or the call this tool using a Firefox or Chrome extension from the .jpg or
.jpeg links and explore the difference between the descriptions and the
alt-text.
I can't guarantee that every alt-text description written in images in
ImageSnippets is to the same standards @carolinescribely describes, but in
general you can see that the description used to describe the image for
blind, low-vision or cognitively-disabled users is different from the
general description and is in many cases less sensitive to context (i.e.
it is just a description of the visual elements).
In our case, we also duplicate the 'description field'
(https://www.iptc.org/std/photometadata/specification/IPTC-
PhotoMetadata#description) into the Extended description field as well
however for additional coverage with screen readers.)
While I do understand why context is important and considered - and I
defer to @carolinescribely on her interpretation of this, I do also feel
there would simply be a great benefit to just getting the main one field
working presently.
To help the workflow of users working with alt-text,it would be great if
just this primary field could be retained in the image and read into the
media library and if edited in the media library interface, could be
resaved back into the image.
There will always be forward/backward/read/write compatibility concerns -
but right now, anything would be better than nothing I think. I will ask
our developer if he has .php expertise around the embedded metadata that
would be helpful here.
I can also see the value to having a media panel however and having better
support for all EXIF/IPTC metadata fields in general, but to further
emphasize the need for the alt-text in particular, this news just came out
3 days ago:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/10/04/url-supreme-court-
disability-rights-case-hotel-booking/71037464007/
WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court wrestled Wednesday with whether Americans
with disabilities may sue hotels for failing to disclose accessibility
information on their websites even if they don't intend to stay there − a
dispute that advocates say could have broad implications for the
enforcement of disability laws.
please contact me if you have more questions, I'm happy to help.
--
Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/55535#comment:49>
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