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Bug 17629 - img elements with role="presentation" and without alt="" fail validation
Summary: img elements with role="presentation" and without alt="" fail validation
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Alias: None
Product: HTML WG
Classification: Unclassified
Component: HTML5 spec (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Hardware: PC Windows NT
: P3 normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: This bug has no owner yet - up for the taking
QA Contact: HTML WG Bugzilla archive list
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: a11y, a11y_text-alt
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2012-06-28 10:26 UTC by Ian Yang
Modified: 2012-08-23 17:31 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

See Also:


Attachments

Description Ian Yang 2012-06-28 10:26:41 UTC
On the Presentation Role section of W3C ARIA Authoring Practices (
http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria-practices/#presentation_role ), it states that
img elements can be validly without alt="" if they have role="presentation".
However, W3C markup validator currently treats that as invalid.

Is that because of one of the following reasons?

* The statement conflicts with HTML5 spec
* The statement is true and HTML5 spec has not been updated
* The markup validator has a bug
Comment 1 steve faulkner 2012-06-28 10:54:19 UTC
(In reply to comment #0)
> On the Presentation Role section of W3C ARIA Authoring Practices (
> http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria-practices/#presentation_role ), it states that
> img elements can be validly without alt="" if they have role="presentation".
> However, W3C markup validator currently treats that as invalid.
> 
> Is that because of one of the following reasons?
> 
> * The statement conflicts with HTML5 spec
> * The statement is true and HTML5 spec has not been updated
> * The markup validator has a bug

its the first:
* The statement conflicts with HTML5 spec

In HTML5 the only conforming instance where an img element can be without an alt attribute is if the img is contained with a figure element which has a non empty figcaption
http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/the-img-element.html#guidance-for-conformance-checkers

<figure>
<img>
<figcaption>caption text</figcaption>
</figure>

note: conformance checkers are also currently allowed to suppress missing alt errors for pages that include a meta name=generator, but this is under review:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2012Jun/0137.html
Comment 2 Ian Yang 2012-06-28 11:06:41 UTC
Hi Steve,

Thanks! Is W3C currently accept suggestions for such cases? If so, I would like to make a suggestion to add one more conforming instance where an img element can be without an alt attribute if the img's ARIA role is "presentation" (role="presentation").

Thanks,
Ian
Comment 3 steve faulkner 2012-06-28 11:25:45 UTC
(In reply to comment #2)
> Hi Steve,
> 
> Thanks! Is W3C currently accept suggestions for such cases? If so, I would like
> to make a suggestion to add one more conforming instance where an img element
> can be without an alt attribute if the img's ARIA role is "presentation"
> (role="presentation").
> 
> Thanks,
> Ian

Hi Ian, 

The idea has been dicusssed previously and rejected as the conformance requirements hor HTML5 should not be based on external specifications. 
You can of course refloat the idea
Comment 4 Ian Yang 2012-06-28 11:30:04 UTC
Hi Steve,

Thanks a lot. Since it has been discussed before, I will not refloat it.

Regards,
Ian
Comment 5 contributor 2012-07-18 07:24:28 UTC
This bug was cloned to create bug 17963 as part of operation convergence.
Comment 6 Edward O'Connor 2012-08-23 17:31:53 UTC
EDITOR'S RESPONSE: This is an Editor's Response to your comment. If you are
satisfied with this response, please change the state of this bug to CLOSED. If
you have additional information and would like the Editor to reconsider, please
reopen this bug. If you would like to escalate the issue to the full HTML
Working Group, please add the TrackerRequest keyword to this bug, and suggest
title and text for the Tracker Issue; or you may create a Tracker Issue
yourself, if you are able to do so. For more details, see this document:

   http://dev.w3.org/html5/decision-policy/decision-policy.html

Status: Rejected
Change Description: No change.
Rationale: The originator has withdrawn the request.