Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Accessibility/Alternative text for images

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Photographs[edit]

The page currently states All readers will be aware this element is an image, so adding "photograph of" isn't usually necessary. No, they won't, diagrams are often uploaded in .jpg or .png formats (although .svg is preferred). These are the most common formats for uploading photographs. Thus, it is useful/important to include |alt=photograph if that information cannot be divined from the caption. SpinningSpark 12:53, 11 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

As a blind person I generally wouldn't care whether an image is a photograph, a diagram, or a drawing, just what it *represents*. Graham87 14:38, 11 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
So, for instance, you wouldn't care whether an image was an actual photograph of Douglas MacArthur returning to the Philippines, or an oil painting depicting him in an unrealistic heroic pose like Washington Crossing the Delaware? I'm pretty sure I'd want to know that even if I was blind and couldn't see it. SpinningSpark 14:48, 11 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
For that sort of case I would. I guess for modern subjects, I'd assume an image of them was a photograph unless told otherwise. Graham87 15:07, 11 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Changing the Napoleon image[edit]

Some editors in a discussion at the GAN talk page on incorporating MOS:ACCESS into the GACR have pointed out that the instructions in this essay are a bit contradictory. In particular, the example alt text given for the Napoleon image in the lead is redundant per the instructions in the final paragraph of the lead, which states that something like |alt=painting should be used, the instructions under the "Captions and nearby text" section, and the examples at the end of the essay. I propose changing the image to something where the caption diverges from an appropriate alt text description of the image. voorts (talk/contributions) 19:00, 24 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Did I go overboard?[edit]

In Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Doom (1993 video game)/archive1, I suggested the following as an alt text: Double-line graph. X-axis is years from 1993 to 2002". Y-axis shows usenet post counts ranging from 0 to 1200 per month. Red line ("doom+clone" or "doom+clones") peaks at about 400 in 1996, and tails off to zero again by 2002. Blue line (...) grows mostly monotonically to about 1120 by 2002, with an intermediate peak of about 850 in 2000. The two lines cross in late 1997. Both lines are close to zero before late 1993, when "Doom released" is noted with a visual marker.

So, my question is, in my zeal to provide a description of all the relevant information, did I go overboard? Should I have suggested something less verbose? RoySmith (talk) 22:11, 6 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Nah I think it's fine. Graham87 (talk) 06:42, 7 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Line breaks?[edit]

What's the right way to specify line breaks in alt text? I've been using a slash, as is common in poetry, but I'm not sure that's the right thing. In the current instance, I'm thinking of a tombstone inscription, where the line breaks are (probably) semantically significant. RoySmith (talk) 14:40, 9 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I think slashes will have to do ... line breaks in alt text don't work at all with either of the Windows screen readers I tried (and probably don't work well with many screen readers at all). Graham87 (talk) 15:07, 9 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Proposal re alt text as linter error and mobile edit microtask[edit]

Please see Wikipedia talk:Linter#Wikipedia Mobile App: Image Recommendations and New Lint Error. This is just a cross-post after the message at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Accessibility#Proposed tracking for images without alt text. Graham87 (talk) 15:53, 27 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]