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Re: Opinions/Facts on Alt Images

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From: Bourne, Sarah (ITD)
Date: May 31, 2016 2:00PM

I agree that they need alternative text. Redundancy can be softened by including "portrait of Sue Smith" on, say, a biography page, or "user icon: Sue Smith" for a directory where that image is used on posts or comments elsewhere in the site. This helps explain to someone with no sight why it's being repeated, and adds clarity for low-vision users. The one time I didn't recommend this is when the portrait had a caption (before figcaption was a thing) that was the name. It seemed a little much to have "portrait of Sue Smith. Sue Smith. Sue Smith."

Sarah E. Bourne
Director of IT Accessibility, MassIT
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
1 Ashburton Pl. rm 1601 Boston MA 02108
617-626-4502
<EMAIL REMOVED>
http://www.mass.gov/MassIT