TOPIC:

In our Xerte objects, decorative images (images without alt text filled in) are still having their file names read out.
I test the W3C Decorative Images page (www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/images/decorative/) and inspected the code. It looks the same as the code on Xerte pages (ie for example).
Here's a page where I have two decorative images (xerte.york.ac.uk/play.php?template_id=3899#page5). They both read out as chem.png instead of skipping the image.
Is this a known issue or is there some setting we've not turned on at the server level?
Thanks in advance.
lilian

Tried another university's Xerte object. This page from Bath (xerte.bath.ac.uk/play.php?template_id=283#Getting_started) has a decorative image under Basic Template. It also reads out as 2.png despite being a decorative image. Hope that provides more information for testing.

What screenreader are you testing with?
Are you tabbing to those images?
Are you hearing the word 'link' as part of what is being read out?
Add the lightbox option for that page and disable lightbox images - do you still hear the filename?
At the moment if you inspect your page you'll see the at text is empty and so should not be read by the screenreader but by default the image is set to open in a lightbox and so is wrapped in <a code and the link will be read out if you tab to it but not if you don't tab to it. So if you disable lightbox for that page the automatically added lightbox links will be removed and the file name will not be read even when you tab around.

Thanks for the quick reply, Ron.
I was using Safari + Voiceover on iPhone. When it's reading everything on the page (swipe up two fingers), it still reads the picture file name and 'link' so you are right, it's perceiving it as a link and therefore reading it as such.
I did as you advised and added the Lightbox optional property, then unchecked it, and it is now behaving as expected.
I've also noted that if the Lightbox optional property is added to the whole project, and unchecked, that we can disable it for all the images so that is very good to know.
Many thanks!

Hi Lilian (and anyone else reading this thread)
keep in mind that in lots of cases (even for screen readers in some cases) it's actually desirable to have images open in a lightbox so disabling for the whole project is rarely a good idea. Reading out the destination of links is also desirable in most cases so authors need to make informed decisions for each case and even more so when it comes to use on mobiles.
HTH
Ron

Hi Lilian

You can add the class 'x_noLightBox' to any images that you do not want to be wrapped in a lightbox link. If you have some non-decorative images in your projects where it would be valuable to be able to open them in a lightbox then this allows you to specify precisely which ones will not.

Fay