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Best practice with ALT text

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From: Alan Zaitchik
Date: Jan 6, 2016 9:22AM

I have wondered about the following for some time.

If I am creating a web page which uses a graphic with text, e.g. a list of services provided by some client, and the web page itself has the SAME text, should I mark the graphic as decorative (ALT="")? Should I set the ALT attribute to the same text? Or should I do something like ALT="list of services provided by XYZ, presented elsewhere on this page"?
The first won't help users with limited, but not totally absent vision, who may wonder what the text in the image is. The second will inconvenience users employing a screen reader who now hear the same text twice. The third makes reference to "elsewhere on this page" which just seems a bit odd. All things considered, I'm thinking that option 3 is actually the most generally beneficial. What do you do? Please do not suggest redesigning the page altogether since we do not have control over the contents and page elements in many cases, alas.

A