Figcapiton vs alt=""
Which is best to use from an accessibility point of view and that works best with screen readers? I have been looking, and I need help finding consistency. Some say do not use alt=" with a figcaption, and some say it is OK. WCAG standards do not speak to this.
There are times when attributions are needed for images. I have always used figcaption. This would be for decorative images. Is that acceptable?
Answers
-
Hi there. To me, figcaptions serve a different purpose than alt text. For one, they are visible to everyone, and second, they sometimes are used to offer commentary on the picture rather than actually describing it. I think people get mad when people put the same text in both places and think that's good. Hmmm…if your image is decorative, though, it might cause confusion when a screen reader user comes upon a figureless caption. I guess I would have to consider how decorative that picture is if it needs attribution. Or maybe the caption could say something like "Landscape provided by X person" so the user knows that there must have been a picture of a landscape present. I hope that is helpful and isn't too rambling.
