Bug 62773 – Alternate text not used in search

• Component: Accessibility
• Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE

[Vlad Alexander]

The browser does not use alternate text when sending content to a search service. For example, select content containing an image that has alternate text and use the Search feature. A blank value is used in place of the image. This results in a loss of content and affects comprehension. This bug also does not encourage authors to use alternate text.

To reproduce the problem, render the following markup:

<h1>I <img src="heart.gif" alt="love" /> you!</h1>

Test page with the above markup:
http://html4all.org/staging/a11y-bugs/1001/love.htm

Select the content. From the context menu, select "Search with Google".

The text "I you!" is sent to the search service instead of "I love you!".

Firefox uses alternate text in place of an image during such operations.

In order stress the importance of this bug and to assure you that the recommended way of fixing the bug is appropriate, this bug is co-signed by the following accessiblity experts:

- Alastair Campbell
- Andrew Downie
- Denis Boudreau
- Everett Zufelt
- Jason Kiss
- Jim Byrne
- John Foliot
- Joshue O Connor
- Laura Carlson
- Leif Halvard Silli
- Nigel Peck
- Roberto Scano
- Roger Johansson
- Vlad Alexander

This bug report comes from the community led a11y bugs project here:
http://html4all.org/staging/a11y-bugs/

[Alexey Proskuryakov]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 28746 ***

[Vlad Alexander]

This may not be a duplicate of bug 28746. Bug 28746 seems to be about in-page search. Whereas this bug is about sending content to an external web service such as Google web search.