WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

no alt-text: lesser of two evils?

for

From: Jackson, Derek
Date: Jul 24, 2018 3:25PM

Hello,


Often times we must process content that is not ours and which is not accessible. We do our best to improve the documents by adding structure and metadata but we are not permitted to add editorial content, and alt-text is considered editorial content. We have an automated process that gives images an alt attribute but leaves the value blank if no alt-text is provided. The issue is that this is then seen as a presentational image and simply ignored by most Assistive Technology and no image is announced at all. Does anyone have any advice or experience with missing alt-text and if it is "better" to leave the attribute blank (i.e. alt="") or to omit it entirely from the element when alt text is not provided, or does it even make a difference (e.g. both are so insufficient it is inconsequential, both are equally useless)? Is it useful to know that there is a relevant image in the content even if it is not accessible?


I hate to ask this question but it is a reality we are sometimes confronted with and hopefully we can do something minimize the affect of the omission a little bit.


Thank you!

Derek