Problem/Motivation
Follow-up to #2307647-43: [Follow-up] Allow manual override of required image alt text in the Text Editor image dialog when appropriate to prevent it from getting derailed on wording.
Alt text is important for accessibility, but not everyone understands it's purpose or value. Even if they do, it can be hard to write good alternate text.
The W3C provides a comprehensive set of guidelines for writing alternate text at http://www.w3.org/TR/html-alt-techniques/
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Note that we're currently specifically talking about the alt text in editor.module (due to #2307647: [Follow-up] Allow manual override of required image alt text in the Text Editor image dialog when appropriate being filed against editor.module), but there is lots of alt-text textfields with different help text (see #1885732: Documenting alt and title tags on image fields) so we could decide to increase scope.
I've attached @Wim Leers' screenshot from #2307647-41: [Follow-up] Allow manual override of required image alt text in the Text Editor image dialog when appropriate to show which alternate text field we want to add help / description text to.
Proposed resolution
We should improve the "Alternate text" field's help text to succinctly explain the purpose and value of alternate text. We might want to link to the W3C's guidelines too.
Bikeshed warning: This issue may generate a lot of discussion as we discover the best way to word it.
Remaining tasks
- Decide on good help text.
- Decide where to change it (currently just editor.module).
- Write a patch.
- Review and RTBC.
- Commit.
- Discuss backporting.
User interface changes
Add help text ('#description' text) to the CKEditor "Insert Image" form's "Alternative text" field.
API changes
None.