[Webkit-unassigned] [Bug 15133] New: Repair missing alternative text where possible, allow user labelling where not

[bugzilla-daemon at webkit.org]

http://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15133

           Summary: Repair missing alternative text where possible, allow
                    user labelling where not
           Product: WebKit
           Version: 522+ (nightly)
          Platform: Macintosh
               URL: http://www.earflix.com/
        OS/Version: Mac OS X 10.4
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: Normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: Accessibility
        AssignedTo: webkit-unassigned at lists.webkit.org
        ReportedBy: bhawkeslewis at googlemail.com


Many web pages either fail to use the alt attribute for images, or use a blank
attribute where it is not appropriate (for example where alternative text is
needed to provide link text). The W3C User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
recognise this common problem, and suggest that user agents should attempt to
repair missing alternative text:

http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-USERAGENT/guidelines.html#tech-missing-alt

http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-USERAGENT/guidelines.html#tech-null-alt

WebKit/VoiceOver do not attempt to repair alt text, but many user
agent/assistive technology pairings on Windows do . A recent example mentioned
on the MacVisionaries mailing list was http://www.earflix.com/ , where the
homepage has a lot of image links without alt attributes. (Yes, I recognise
this is fundamentally an author error and have already reported this issue via
the Earflix contact form. But there are lots of other webpages like this.) If
WebKit made use of the title attributes and/or parsed useful words out of the
image URL to reconstruct alternative text, then VoiceOver users would be able
to use the site rather than resorting to using Windows.

Especially where it is not possible to repair alt text or where the repair is
ineffective), it would good to allow users to label images themselves and even
to share labels with each other. Since this might be helpful for applications
other than web browsers, it should be carefully considered (probably by Apple)
whether labelling should be a WebKit feature, a VoiceOver feature, or both.


-- 
Configure bugmail: http://bugs.webkit.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email
------- You are receiving this mail because: -------
You are the assignee for the bug, or are watching the assignee.