Do not generate default alt text for images #30213

ckundo · 2017-08-12T15:50:46Z

Summary

Deprecate image_alt helper.
Remove the call to image_alt from image_tag.

[Fixes #30096]

Impact

After this change, screen readers will fallback to default, expected, and user configurable behavior for missing alt text.
Also with this change, automated linting and testing tools will correctly generate warnings.

Motivation

Auto-generating content from the filename of an image is not suitable alternative text.
Alt text that isn't fully considered can be distracting and fatiguing for screen readers users (blind, low vision, dyslexic people).
Setting a filename fallback short circuits screen reader default behavior and configuration for blank descriptions, and may be frustrating to the assistive technology user.
Setting poor defaults also creates false negatives for linting tools, that makes it harder to improve application accessibility.

rails-bot · 2017-08-12T15:50:50Z

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ckundo · 2017-08-12T19:44:56Z

I'm working on fixing up test failures now, but the gist of the PR is the same.

ckundo · 2017-08-12T19:57:54Z

Something to reiterate from the PR comment: this change will create warnings in some accessibility testing tools. These would be correct failures, but new failures nonetheless. In some cases these warnings could potentially be part of CI suites, and, in an even more narrow subset of applications, may create build failures.

Is it worth introducing a configuration option to disable the correct behavior for folks that may need to fix failures when upgrading Rails? The alternative for those that want to delay fixes would be to monkey-patch the image_tag helper in their apps until they remediate the issue. @mgifford how did y'all handle this in Drupal?

rafaelfranca

It looks good to me. Nice work. Can you add a CHANGELOG entry?

rafaelfranca · 2017-08-14T22:24:06Z

actionview/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb

@@ -286,6 +282,8 @@ def image_tag(source, options = {})
      #   image_alt('underscored_file_name.png')
      #   # => Underscored file name
      def image_alt(src)
+        ::ActiveSupport::Deprecation.warn("ActionView::Helpers::AssesTagHelper.image_alt is deprecated and will be removed from Rails 5.2. You must exlicitly set alt text on images.")


I think you can remove the first :: here.

georgeclaghorn · 2017-08-15T13:09:56Z

actionview/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb

@@ -286,6 +282,8 @@ def image_tag(source, options = {})
      #   image_alt('underscored_file_name.png')
      #   # => Underscored file name
      def image_alt(src)
+        ActiveSupport::Deprecation.warn("ActionView::Helpers::AssesTagHelper.image_alt is deprecated and will be removed from Rails 5.2. You must exlicitly set alt text on images.")


s/AssesTagHelper/AssetsTagHelper, s/exlicitly/explicitly

Don't need to talk about the module name too. Only image_alt is deprecated is good. And it is going to be removed from Rails 6.0.

georgeclaghorn · 2017-08-15T13:10:41Z

actionview/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb

@@ -268,6 +262,8 @@ def image_tag(source, options = {})
        tag("img", options)
      end

+      # This method will be deprecated in future versions of Rails.


This method is deprecated now. It’ll be removed in Rails 5.2.

No, it's deprecated in 5.2 and will be removed in 6.0.

Though we let the deprecation warning itself suffice, so need for a comment here.

I meant that the comment says this method will eventually be deprecated when it’s actually deprecated in this PR.

The deprecation warning says this method will be removed in 5.2; it should say 6.0.

rafaelfranca · 2017-08-15T18:16:34Z

actionview/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb

@@ -286,6 +282,8 @@ def image_tag(source, options = {})
      #   image_alt('underscored_file_name.png')
      #   # => Underscored file name
      def image_alt(src)
+        ActiveSupport::Deprecation.warn("ActionView::Helpers::AssesTagHelper.image_alt is deprecated and will be removed from Rails 5.2. You must exlicitly set alt text on images.")


Don't need to talk about the module name too. Only image_alt is deprecated is good. And it is going to be removed from Rails 6.0.

rafaelfranca

Looks good to me. Can you squash your commits?

maclover7 · 2017-08-17T12:43:13Z

actionview/lib/action_view/helpers/asset_tag_helper.rb

-        unless src.start_with?("cid:") || src.start_with?("data:") || src.blank?
-          options[:alt] = options.fetch(:alt) { image_alt(src) }
-        end
+        options[:src] = path_to_image(source, skip_pipeline: skip_pipeline)


Why are we changing the method being used to generate src? Using path_to_image instead of resolve_image_source is causing CI to fail 😬

maclover7 · 2017-08-17T12:43:42Z

actionview/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+*   Remove default `alt` text generation
+
+    Fixes #30096


Can you add a period after the issue number

ckundo · 2017-08-17T14:27:53Z

Thanks @maclover7, fixed. Good to squash?

rafaelfranca · 2017-08-17T19:45:38Z

👍 squash again

- Auto-generating content from the filename of an image is not suitable alternative text; alt text that isn't fully considered can be distracting and fatiguing for screen readers users (blind, low vision, dyslexic people). - Setting a filename fallback short circuits screen reader default behavior and configuration for blank descriptions. - Setting poor defaults also creates false negatives for accessibility linting and testing software, that makes it harder to improve application accessibility. *** - After this change, if authors leave images without alt text, screen readers will fallback to default behavior for missing alt text. - Also with this change, Automated linting and testing tools will correctly generate warnings. [Fixes rails#30096]

ckundo · 2017-08-21T15:19:17Z

Squashed and ready!

ckundo · 2017-08-23T14:58:31Z

@rafaelfranca anything else I can add?

Do not generate default alt text for images

Follow up of rails#30213

The `image_tag` helper no longer generates a default alt tag from the filename. The reasoning is explained in [rails PR #30213][0] Since we don't have custom `alt` tags written up for the book images, I just removed the `alt` tags from the spec expectations [0]:rails/rails#30213

…d code it. See rails/rails#30213

rails-bot assigned schneems Aug 12, 2017

rafaelfranca requested changes Aug 14, 2017

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georgeclaghorn reviewed Aug 15, 2017

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rafaelfranca requested changes Aug 15, 2017

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rafaelfranca requested changes Aug 16, 2017

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ckundo force-pushed the ccundiff-alt-text-default branch 2 times, most recently from 75153dc to c469879 Compare August 16, 2017 18:34

maclover7 suggested changes Aug 17, 2017

View reviewed changes

ckundo force-pushed the ccundiff-alt-text-default branch from c66f5ab to 9a74c7b Compare August 17, 2017 20:13

rafaelfranca merged commit 9a74c7b into rails:master Aug 23, 2017

rafaelfranca added a commit that referenced this pull request Aug 23, 2017

Merge pull request #30213 from ckundo/ccundiff-alt-text-default

783295f

Do not generate default alt text for images

y-yagi added a commit to y-yagi/rails that referenced this pull request Aug 23, 2017

Remove alt text from image_tag example [ci skip]

826fe1f

Follow up of rails#30213

y-yagi mentioned this pull request Aug 23, 2017

Remove alt text from image_tag example [ci skip] #30383

Merged

astronaut-wannabe mentioned this pull request Apr 17, 2018

Bump rails from 5.1.6 to 5.2.0 crimethinc/website#700

Merged

yukihr mentioned this pull request Oct 29, 2018

image_alt helper is deprecated and will be removed from rails 6.0. takafumir/rails_amp#10

Closed

david-a-wheeler mentioned this pull request Feb 14, 2019

Update to Rails 5.2.2 coreinfrastructure/best-practices-badge#1263

Merged

jmuheim added a commit to jmuheim/base that referenced this pull request Aug 7, 2019

image_tag does not auto generate alt text from src anymore, so we har…

ba44556

…d code it. See rails/rails#30213

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Do not generate default alt text for images #30213

Do not generate default alt text for images #30213

ckundo commented Aug 12, 2017

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ckundo commented Aug 12, 2017 •

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ckundo commented Aug 17, 2017

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ckundo commented Aug 21, 2017

ckundo commented Aug 23, 2017

		@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
		* Remove default `alt` text generation

		Fixes #30096

Do not generate default alt text for images #30213

Do not generate default alt text for images #30213

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ckundo commented Aug 12, 2017

Summary

Impact

Motivation

rails-bot commented Aug 12, 2017

ckundo commented Aug 12, 2017 • edited

ckundo commented Aug 12, 2017

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ckundo commented Aug 17, 2017

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ckundo commented Aug 21, 2017

ckundo commented Aug 23, 2017

ckundo commented Aug 12, 2017 •

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edited