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Re: Question About Alternative Text

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From: Date: Aug 7, 2020 12:47AM

Hi,

if you provide alternative text, you can leave it up to the user what do with it (the image/its alternative text). I tend to think for example of a user with some kind of low vision - she might be seeing that there is a picture but may have difficulty figuring out what it is about. Based on your example a text like 'students in a classroom' could convey that the picture might not be that critical for understanding the text but still provides equivalent context as a normal sighted user might get. And a low vision user can then decide whether to zoom in or whatever to get hold of more aspects of the image, or to leave it alone as it probably is not that essential.

Just my 2 cents...

Olaf


> On 5. Aug 2020, at 04:35, Drip Jutsu < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
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> Hi All,
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> I have been an accessibility specialist for some time now, but there are moments in which I feel lost in how to address certain things. I understand the guidelines, but there are always cases in which I believe it comes down to the designers and developers.
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> One question that I have always had is, are we supposed to provide alt text for images that are not necessarily decorative, that is, they are not only existent for visual design reasons, but are not necessarily informative and do not convey information important for the website user. An example I have is, let's say there is an article that discusses the importance of classroom rules, and in the article, there is a picture of students in a classroom. The image of students in a classroom is not important for understanding the article as a whole or any context within the article. One could argue that the image is important for the visual user to empathize with a classroom setting, but I am not sure where to stand on this topic. I typically add alternative text to all images unless it is very clearly decorative.
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> Best,
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> An Accessibility Specialist
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> > > >