See Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria for important information about the usage of these informative techniques and how they relate to the normative WCAG 2.0 success criteria. The Applicability section explains the scope of the technique, and the presence of techniques for a specific technology does not imply that the technology can be used in all situations to create content that meets WCAG 2.0.
Applies to all technologies
This technique relates to:
This technique is used when the text needed to serve the same purpose and present the same information as the original non-text content is too lengthy or when this goal cannot be achieved with text alone. In that case this technique is used to provide a short text alternative that briefly describes the non-text content. (A long text alternative is then provided using another technique such that the combination serves the same purpose and presents the same information as the original non-text content.)
In deciding what text to include in the alternative, it is often a good idea to consider the following questions:
Why is this non-text content here?
What information is it presenting?
What purpose does it fulfill?
If I could not use the non-text content, what words would I use to convey the same function and/or information?
A chart showing sales for October has an short text alternative of "October sales chart". It also has a long description that provides all of the information on the chart.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement implied.
Check for the presence of a short text alternative that provides a brief description of the non-text content.
Check #1 is true.
If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.