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Re: character limit on alt attribute for screen readers

for

From: Olaf Drümmer
Date: Feb 3, 2016 9:23AM


A major problem with Alt text is the fact that it is not structured content. This has to be taken into account, as a user of assistive technology could not easily navigate within larger amounts of Alt text. There is a reason we require good content structuring everywhere else, and as structuring can't be done inside an Alt text the text has to be kept reasonably succinct.

Olaf

> On 03.02.2016, at 17:03, Kelly Lupo < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> As far as I know, it reads everything. That said, I had attended a webinar
> for creation of accessible materials where a question (mine!) was addressed
> regarding how long alt-text *should* be. The presenter said that on
> average, anything more than 100 characters (not words) often starts to
> become cumbersome to the user of a screen-reader.
>
> I'm not sure what industry standard is on this (I'm very much a newb), but
> that was what I have been told!
>
> Kelly
>
> On Tue, Feb 2, 2016 at 7:19 PM, Angela French < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> Is there a character count for alt attribute values for screen readers to
>> read it all, or do they truncate?
>>
>> Thank you,
>>
>> Angela French
>> Internet Specialist
>> Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
>> 360-704-4316
>> <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>> www.checkoutacollege.com<;http://www.checkoutacollege.com/>;
>> www.sbctc.edu<;http://www.sbctc.edu/>;
>>
>> >> >> >> >>
> > > >