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Re: Screen Shots and A11y

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From: Joe Chidzik
Date: Sep 27, 2012 12:47AM

> Would screen shots be considered "decorative" and therefore be given null ALT
> text? Or should there be a completely different strategy that would take the place
> of a screen shot for users that are unable to see it?
>
> Thanks,
> David Ashleydale

[Joe Chidzik] I've produced a lot of pages that use similar sounding content; they contain screenshots of various UI elements within windows, on pages that detail how to carry out various tasks.

The screenshots are there purely as additional information as all the key info is contained the accompanying text. So when the instructions say press 'alt+f for the file menu', and then arrow down to select 'print', and press 'enter', the screenshot simply shows the file menu open, with the print option highlighted. I've just used a blank alt text attribute for these images as the accompanying text is the effective alt text. This sounds very similar to what you're doing, so perhaps a similar approach would work for you.

Regards
Joe