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Re: Question About Alternative Text

for

From: Mallory
Date: Aug 6, 2020 5:55AM

Many users say they like good alt text, but when the site I'm auditing is using stock images simply to break up blocks of text, I feel it's decorative as well.

But I may mention it to the client anyway. I'm a terse/to the point person who would grimace at even a decent description of "white woman smiling at a salad" type photos, but I am not the user, and the client may be aware of whether they have a user segment that reacts to those kinds of photos.
For example, if this is a "white women lose weight and find their spirit animals through smoothies and yoga" blog site, it may be a better recommendation that the site authors *don't* treat those as decorative images. Even when they're clearly stock photos bought randomly from a stock package. If they're adding a mood, or encouraging a purchase, they really might fall under content.

For a recent bank audit where for little article blurbs they had stock photos of things like piles of paper bills, stock-price graphs with no names (just a generic STONKS graphic), oxfords-not-brogues businessman shoes, etc. I was happy to let them use alt="". I can't imagine what kind of alt text they could add that wouldn't be awful.

But wouldn't mind hearing more about what the end-users prefer.

cheers,
_mallory

On Wed, Aug 5, 2020, at 4:51 PM, glen walker wrote:
> If I were auditing that site, if the classroom pic had an empty alt text, I
> would be fine with it. If it had a descriptive alt text, I would be fine
> with it, but I agree with David that alt text can be a creative art form.
> It's kind of a "can't lose" situation in your scenario. I don't often ping
> decorative images with alt text unless it's something like a horizontal
> line divider and the alt text is "horizontal line divider". That really
> should be hidden. But pictures that don't add meaning, while I prefer them
> to be hidden, if they have a decent alt text and don't distract from what's
> going on, I usually leave alone. I might make a note that the alt text
> isn't needed but there's no reason to pull it out. I note it for the
> client's future reference.
>
> If I were implementing that site, I would have an empty alt text. It's
> decorative to me.
> > > > >