where to add alt-text for figure/caption

Report · Mar 30, 2016

For images that have both a figure and caption tag, where would you add the alt-text? I was told that in this situation, you add the alt-text to the Figure only and that the alt-text could simply state: Figure x: caption follows. However, when JAWS reader reads the document it never reads aloud the caption....so, what should I do in this situation?

As a test I added alt-text to the caption tag and had JAWS read through the document, but it still did not read this alt-text, it only read the alt-text for the figure tag. JAWS also does not read the caption text either, let alone the alt-text for the caption. Given the results of this test, I suspect I should only add alt-text to the figure tag and make the alt-text descriptive enough for the user to understand it, correct?

Thanks, Marion

Report · Apr 05, 2016

Alternate Description is provided to the "Figure" tag. The Caption tag is a tag that denotes a string of text that is the "caption"/"title" of an appropriate object (such as an image of, say, Peter Pan).

If your need is accessible PDF you'll need

ANSI/AIIM/ISO 14289-1, Document Management Applications - Electronic document file format enhancement for accessibility - Part 1: Use of ISO 32000-1 (PDF/UA-1) -

http://www.aiim.org/Research-and-Publications/Standards/Catalog/14289-1

Be well...