Images shouldn't have alt attributes of filenames

[matt]

When you upload a photo, and don't give it a title, it gets a title of the filename.

Then when you insert the picture into the editor, if gives the picture an alt attribute withthe file name.

Under no circumstances should default behavior give alt attributes of filenames, so we should avoid this.

[Nazgul]

Any suggestions on what should be in the alt attribute? Or do we leave it empty?

[Nazgul]

Damn. That should be the other way around. :)

[cpoteet]

What do you think should be replaced instead of the filename? alt="" isn't a much better option.

[matt]

Blank is better than something that's not actually alt text:

​http://diveintoaccessibility.org/day_21_ignoring_spacer_images.html

[markjaquith]

​Amazon's Mechanical Turk to the rescue! :-)

But seriously... if we don't have data in the form of a manually specified title, the best thing we can do is use alt=""

[foolswisdom]

Relates to #3744

[cpoteet]

Fix.

[cpoteet]

It's not pretty, but it's better than the alt tags with no semantic value.

[rob1n]

cpoteet: Welcome to the WordPress Trac, but just FYI we don't close the ticket as "fixed" until it's committed into the trunk.

[cpoteet]

Is this going to be added to the trunk?

[rob1n]

It's hardly essential, so bumping to 2.3. Only essential bugfixes are going in 2.2 as of this point.

[RuddO]

I actually think the file name is a good default, provided it's stripped from the extension. Now, what would be AWESOME is if clicking on the attachment name made the name into a text box, that onBlur renamed the file using AJAX or something like it. Thus, the usability problem of taking the file name as the attachment title (and corresponding alt attribute) becomes a minor annoyance.

[Nazgul]

The filename, even without the extension, should never be used for the alt tag.

A filename is bound by the limitations of the filesystem, therefore people often replace spaces with underscores or use CamelCase. I don't know if you've ever listened to a screenreader trying to pronounce that. It's just plain ugly.

I'd rather see empty alt attributes than filenames (with or without extension). Although making a meaningfull alt attribute mandatory would get a +100 from me.

(Anecdote: A blind friend of mine showed me a site which was read to us by his screenreader. During the reading it said "spacer.gif" over 50 times before even reaching the actual content on that page. Every time you mention the word spacer.gif in his vicinity nowadays he starts to twitch ;) )

[rob1n]

(In [5653]) Better use empty alt attribute than the filename. Props cpoteet. fixes #3100