Alt? Longdesc? Title? What goes where, especially for image-heavy sites?

Question

So I\'ve been trying to make my site as accessible as possible (for non-JavaScript users, web crawlers, screen readers, etc), and I hit a large snag.

The site I\'m d

Answer 1

The alt attribute is for alternative text, i.e. textual replacement for an image, so in the example, it is adequate if it reasonably tells the same story as the image. In reality, most images cannot have texts that are full “alternatives” or “replacements”; it’s usually a matter of capturing some of the most essential message, if possible.

An alt text can be of any length. The statement that alt texts should not be descriptions does not mean that it cannot be detailed if needed. The point is that there are too many descriptions that say something about an image without conveying its message (like “big red bullet” or “A man in a canoe”).

The longdesc attribute is supported by some software but highly debated and not part of W3C HTML5 CR but being developed as an independent “extension”.

The figcaption element is for captions presented along with an image. It does not address the issue of alternative text at all. It is meant to be presented to the user, whether he sees the image or not.