Images – Easier Way to add ALT Text

[lezonl2]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

              

  Idea open for vote Wed. July 6, 2016 - Wed. October 5, 2016  Learn more about voting...

When I upload my own image on a page it would be great to automatically have the Image Attributes display so that I can change the Alt text. The default ALT text, which is the file name, likely means nothing to someone who cannot see the picture. I imagine many users don’t know how important it is to take the extra step to change this label to something meaningful.

Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through the https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-13886 .

[tbunag]

I noticed some people down-voted this feature, but I don't know what the drawbacks could be.  Would any of you who down-voted be willing to share why you wouldn't want this to be a feature?  Perhaps there would be a way of implementing it that would meet your needs.

[leturno]

There may be a bug in the voting tool. It says 4 down votes. It also says "No one has voted against this idea".

I did not know if I had voted so I clicked on the up vote again and the vote went down.

I opened case 01605018 with support.

Scott Leturno

Moraine Valley Community College

[mtuten]

I don't know if there were down votes, but if there were, the only thing I can imagine being the cause is that they don't want the alt text to be entered from within the editor. Since the alt text isn't visible when the page is saved, some folks who aren't quite tech savvy (those who probably wonder why they require alt text or why they don't label the alt text field as Image description) may be unnecessarily confused by seeing the alt text in the WYSIWYG editor. They--or maybe I should be more accurate and say I--would prefer there being a pop-up or even something like what Google Docs has where a bar with a few simple tools appears below the image when the image is hovered on.

[Renee_Carney]

 @leturno ​

We have a known bug filed with Jive support regarding a bug in the voting system.  It doesn't happen all the time, but once in a while it will count an up vote as a down .  It is a good idea to watch the count when you click - as you did. 

[ted_curran]

I can see why people would assume alt tags are confusing to people who

don't know what they are. I coach people in using Wordpress (which has a

field for alt tags) and people skip it because they don't grasp the concept

and don't get why they should.

If you implement a field for entering alt text, it might be nice to have a

tooltip next to it (like a ❓ icon) where people can read up on what alt

tags are for and why they're so important.

On Thu, Oct 6, 2016 at 9:50 AM, rcarney@instructure.com <

[ejp10]

It's not fair to ask instructors to add image ALT text, but then make them hunt for it in some "Advanced" view. It should be front and center at the time of insertion. Accessibility is as important as image size and alignment for digital content.

[lezonl2]

Any updates on this idea?

[siouxgeonz]

Just another person wondering about this --

[holly_smythe]

Anytime someone adds an image they should be REQUIRED to add the alt text.  Also, the box where the alt text is added should not allow a period (.) to be inserted which would prevent a filename from being inserted instead of actual alt text.

[christopher_phi]

I wrote a discussion post today with some thoughts on the current way that Canvas adds alt text and a few ideas on how they might do it differently here: 

https://community.canvaslms.com/message/81973-alt-text-behavior 

Hopefully this is something that can be addressed soon!