Technique G95:Providing short text alternatives that provide a brief description of the non-text content

Description

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?

Examples

• 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.

Related Techniques

• G74: Providing a long description in text near the non-text content, with a reference to the location of the long description in the short description
• G73: Providing a long description in another location with a link to it that is immediately adjacent to the non-text content
• G92: Providing long description for non-text content that serves the same purpose and presents the same information
• G94: Providing short text alternative for non-text content that serves the same purpose and presents the same information as the non-text content

Tests

Test Rules

The following are Test Rules related to this Technique. It is not necessary to use these particular Test Rules to check for conformance with WCAG, but they are defined and approved test methods. For information on using Test Rules, see Understanding Test Rules for WCAG Success Criteria.

• Image accessible name is descriptive
• Image button has non-empty accessible name
• Image has non-empty accessible name
• Image filename is accessible name for image