Core: "alt" attributes for avatars

[hackgence]

Feature Request

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Not having "alt" attributes in avatar images causes SEO issues

Checked using Google's Lighthouse - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lighthouse/blipmdconlkpinefehnmjammfjpmpbjk

Describe the solution you'd like
Maybe [alt] attributes should be named as the username of the user

Justify why this feature belongs in Flarum's core, rather than in a third-party extension
Flarum core has alt attributes for images in the post section, it should also have for images of avatars, it is good habit.

Describe alternatives you've considered
None

[matteocontrini]

I don't think that using the username as the alt text is a solution. The alternative text should be a description of the image, and the username doesn't describe much. I think it would only be confusing for people that use screen readers.

It's not always possible to provide a meaningful alt text, unfortunately, but that doesn't mean that using whatever text is available is acceptable. I don't think that adding the alt just to get a good score on Google Lighthouse is a good idea...

EDIT: the alt tag can actually be empty, so that would be a first step to be at least compliant with HTML.

[askvortsov1]

Well, the image is the avatar for the user, so I wouldn't say that using the username as the alt tag is incorrect. Although perhaps "username's avatar" might be better...

[matteocontrini]

Well, the image is the avatar for the user, so I wouldn't say that using the username as the alt tag is incorrect

Yes, but imagine a screen reader reading "Image: askvortsov", would that be useful or help the user understand what the image is about? I don't think so...

[rob006]

Although perhaps "username's avatar" might be better...

"username's avatar" is pretty much useless from content perspective - username is already available in post header and avatar have only decorative purpose, so it should have empty alt.

[smartclash]

Something is better than nothing. I'd vote on having "username's avatar" as the value in alt instead of leaving it empty

[rob006]

Something is better than nothing

No, it's not. It is only a noise - that is why Google recommend empty alt for decorative images.

[askvortsov1]

@franzliedke you're much more familiar with accessibility rules than I am, what are your thoughts on this?

[tankerkiller125]

@askvortsov1 Looking further into the accessibility standards and doing a bunch of research across many platforms the consensus from the majority of sites is that our avatars in the forum discussion list should have an empty alt tag.

[askvortsov1]

In that case, @smartclash would you be able to update your PR to use an empty string instead of the username? Sorry for the confusion on this one :hear_no_evil:

[smartclash]

Sure thing, will be doing that @askvortsov1 :)

[franzliedke]

You handled this perfectly, thanks. :+1: Totally agree with @rob006 .