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Re: Question About Alternative Text

for

From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Aug 6, 2020 6:30AM

I think one of the things that is problematic about testing alt text is that
testers typically had no involvement in or information about the design
process for a user interface. We are frequently just guessing. That is why
I think it makes sense to take a light touch to testing the alt text. If
the alt text is not obviously problematic, then it passes.

If I had involvement in the design or access to the information, I might be
more strict on what passes because I can specifically ask the designer what
their intent was.

The appropriateness of alt text is probably something that ought to be
tested in design. Then when you get to testing the application, you just
make sure the alt text or null alt text is present.

Thanks,
Tim
Tim Harshbarger
Senior Accessibility Consultant
Deque Systems
-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of
Mallory
Sent: Thursday, August 6, 2020 6:56 AM
To: glen walker < <EMAIL REMOVED> >; WebAIM Discussion List
< <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Question About Alternative Text

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.
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