Forums / Developer / Alternative Image Text Mandatory

Alternative Image Text Mandatory

Author Message

John Smith

Thursday 29 September 2005 3:47:35 am

Do anyone know how to make any of the input text field mandatory on the admin side of the site.

For e.g. While creating a new image I want "Alternative Image Text" input text field to be mandatory like the "Name" field for the image name.

So that if someone left this field blank while uploading an image, system should give an error.

Please help

Cheers

Mark Marsiglio

Thursday 29 September 2005 10:53:41 am

We are planning to add this, but have not gotten to it yet. Our plan was to use a javascript validation on the form field to warn users against leaving alt text empty, and to provide a reminder as to what alt text should be (concise description of important visual elements in the image).

We had originally decided against making it required (non-blank) because we felt that there are some images that should contain null alt tags (those that are only decorative or background). However, lately we are thinking that there will not likely be many such images outside of the templates. Maybe required is a better idea.

Let us know if you get anywhere on this, and the online editor issue, any time soon.

Thanks
mark

http://www.thinkcreative.com
Turning Ideas Into Strategic Solutions

John Smith

Friday 30 September 2005 1:41:36 am

Hi mark,

Thanks for your kind reply and help. I think it is very necessary to make the 'Alternative Image Text' mandatory input field to meet standards and validations of the page. To solve the problem regarding alt tags for decorative images, we can always use a space instead of writing anything in the "Alternative Image Text" input field when it is made mandatory.

Another thing which I have noticed is regarding the uploading of the images in an article. Anybody can upload an image in the "Related Objects" section with the use of "Upload New" button without writing any alternative image text, it totally bypasses the "Image Creation" screen. Similar thing is happening with Online editor upload functionality. So the result is anybody can upload any image without using "Alternative Image Text" straight way. We need some kind of validation there as well. What you think?

Cheers

Timmothy Green

Wednesday 09 November 2005 12:03:52 pm

Here in the U.S. we have something called Section 508. Which means all Federal websites or websites provided under a federal contract must comply with certain accessiblity standards. One of these standards is the use of "Alt Text" tags. It would be beneficial to be able to require "Alternative Image Text" in these cases.

More info on Section 508: http://www.section508.gov

Automation Technologies, Inc.
http://www.ati4it.com

Roland Greinstetter

Monday 15 October 2007 8:46:11 am

hi,

seems there is no solution up to now, to comply with w3c wai standards i made a new override-template for ezimage where i check if an "Alternative Image Text" was given for the image. if not i display the original filename as "Alt Text".

<img src={$image.url|ezroot} width="{$image.width}" height="{$image.height}" {section show=$hspace}hspace="{$hspace}"{/section} style="border: {$border_size}px;" alt="{if $image.text|eq('')}{$image.original_filename}{else}{$image.text|wash(xhtml)}{/if}">

i know its not the best solution, but one which works

so long

John Smith

Monday 28 April 2008 2:45:33 am

Hi all,

Are we expecting any fix for alternative text (images) in new online editor (ez4.0)?

This is a serious issue in website accessiblity.

Cheers.

Any reply form ezcrew will be appreciated..

John Smith

Tuesday 02 September 2008 8:23:45 am

I think it is the still same issue after three years. Not been introduced in ezpublish 4.0.x.

Anyone????

Mark Marsiglio

Saturday 13 September 2008 11:33:55 am

John - thanks for mentioning this in the other thread - link here is for refernece:

http://ez.no/developer/forum/extensions/call_for_testers_new_online_editor/(offset)/200#msg173400

Support for alt text is included in the new ezoe...

http://www.thinkcreative.com
Turning Ideas Into Strategic Solutions