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Re: If an image doesn't add meaning, should it have alt text?

for

From: Maxability
Date: Apr 7, 2019 11:02PM

Larry,


My two cents as a accessibility consultant and also as a screen reader user.


1. Do not provide alternate text for the image, this will be a redundant
information screen reader reads twice.

2. Provide alt attribute with empty quotes so that screen reader may not
read any other text such as file name.

3. I am not sure how people react to a JS button that can turn of
alternate text for images, Would like to hear from others.


Regards - Rakesh

On 4/8/2019 5:37 AM, Larry Hudson wrote:
> Hi everyone! I work at a company that makes accessible documents for people
> with different types of disability.
>
> We create Easy Read documents with clear, plain language for people with low
> literacy and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
> Each line of text has an image that illustrates the meaning of the text.
>
> According to my interpretation of WCAG, images that do not add extra meaning
> should not have alt text. It seems to me that these image descriptions will
> get in the way of the meaning of the text, and make the document much longer
> to read for screen reader users. However, we have found that quite a lot of
> screen reader users like having descriptions of all images in a document.
>
> A solution to this problem for HTML webpages is to include a hidden
> JavaScript control so screen reader users can turn off image descriptions.
>
> However, we also produce a lot of PDF and Word documents. I'm not sure what
> the 'default' behaviour should be.
>
> Have any of you dealt with an issue like this before?
>
>
>
> If you're a screen reader user, would you prefer to have image descriptions
> or just the text?
>
>
>
> PS: If you're interested in reading more about this issue, I posted a thread
> in the Blind subreddit
> <https://www.reddit.com/r/Blind/comments/b9luia/if_an_image_doesnt_add_meani
> ng_should_it_have_alt/> a few days ago and have received strong opinions on
> both sides.
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Larry
>
>
>
> Larry Hudson | Content Producer | The Information Access Group
>
> Email: <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> <EMAIL REMOVED> | Web:
> <http://www.informationaccessgroup.com/>; www.informationaccessgroup.com
>
>
>
> > > >