Alt text for images?

Question

A reviewer of my tour map pointed out that there appears to be no alt text attribute for the images when the mouse is hovered over the image. That probably makes it non-compliant with Section 508 for the visually impaired. I don't have a screen reader myself, so I can't check what might get read out to the listener as they tab through the elements. Is there any chance that the name and/or description would substitute for alt text? Or can I enable that attribute somehow and include the text in the csv that I am using to create the points in my map?

thanks

pmckinney · Answer

I'll add to this thread that after a review of existing apps my organization uses (self-hosted and AGOL hosted), I found the following related to ALT text for images:

Story Maps (self-hosted, v.2.2.9):

* No alt text for main image
* No alt text for thumbnail image

Shortlist (self-hosted, 1.4.4):

* No alt text for legend
* No alt text for thumbnails on left
* No alt text for images in pop-up

Cloud hosted (agol)

* No alt tags in images in legends

RupertEssinger · Answer

Thanks so much for testing that. We need to look into this here to see if we can hook those text strings up. I can ask about this but this won't likely be added to our immediate development agenda. One thing that might be relevant: there are several map tour examples where audio and video have been embedded into the tour.

EvanThoms · Answer

Thanks Rupert,
For the record, I installed the NVDA screen reader and it did not read out the names and descriptions of photos. I am not familiar with screen readers nor how this one compares to others, so it might be tweakable, but with the default configuration it didn't work.