Add empty alt tag for decorative images
Wes Cossick
Decorative images, along with images that are described by their adjacent text, may sometimes be announced by assistive technologies (e.g., screen readers). While this doesn't meaningfully impact accessibility, it could save the users who rely on these technologies a few seconds of time if an empty alt tag were to be provided to confirm for the assistive technology that the image is indeed decorative (in the cases where the assistive technology doesn't already make this assumption).
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Mike Wish
Is it not meaningful that both Section 508 and WCAG accessibility guidelines specifically instruct all images to contain alt tags even if they're empty?
This really should be a bug, not a feature request.
Wes Cossick
Mike Wish: Good question. Bugs are issues that break our software's ability to function correctly or as designed; whereas, feature requests are suggestions that would improve the experience of using our software or add new functionality.
Both the W3C and other organizations publish recommendations for how to design accessible software and websites. The recommendations range in importance from ones that make it possible for someone with disabilities to use the software at all, to ones that make it more convenient for these users to use the software.
Since this request would fall under the latter category by saving these users some time, we've placed this suggestion on our feature requests board.
Our next gen front ends, by the way, will target a higher level of accessibility by implementing more of the recommendations that are less critical, but nevertheless enhance the experience someone with disabilities has using our software.
Mike Wish
Thanks Wes