Alternate text for UI images

[tobiasvl]

All images that are part of the RoundCube UI should have an alternate text, HTML "alt" attribute, which is displayed when images are not displayed in the user agent. This is required by the current W3C accessibility guidelines: ​http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505/#gl-provide-equivalents

Currently all images only have a title attribute (text displayed as tooltips on mouseover), which is insufficient; however, new alt attributes can probably just be set to the same value as these title attributes.

[alec]

An example? I see all images have alt set to empty string.

[tobiasvl]

Yes, and they should all be descriptive none-empty strings (I suggested to just use the same text as the title attribute) in order to make RoundCube usable for people who are visually impaired or even blind (using screen readers).

As for examples: I see noe that the toolbar buttons aren't actual images, but are displayed with CSS... That might complicate things a bit. It's not immediately apparent to me why it's done that way, as it probably breaks a few accessibility guidelines on its own.

[alec]

Css-sprites are better for performance, but in places where we're using <img> I think we could set alt to title. I don't use screen readers. Aren't they using title attribute when alt is empty?

[tobiasvl]

I don't use screen readers. Aren't they using title attribute when alt is empty?

Some do, although it's not standard. I found this overview, but it's from 2005: ​http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/articles/WE05/forms.html

Css-sprites are better for performance

It's too bad that performance trumps accessibility.

[alec]

I think use of styled <A> instead of <IMG> is not an issue. What precissely do you expect?

[alec]

We'll not replace <A> with >IMG> and <A> doesn't allows alt attribute. So, wontfix.