This page contains all guidelines tagged with:
Alt Text
Shortened from “alternative text,” this is a short visual description that provides a general sense of the content of an image. It is structured as a sentence fragment that indicates the most important content of the image. Alt text is read aloud by screen readers used by visually impaired users.
19 Resources: People (0); Podcasts (0); Organisations (0); Tools (1) Articles (18)
People
Podcasts
Organisations
Tools
Articles
Alt text for avatars or user photos
User photos and avatars are informational images. Do use clear and concise alternate text to describe them. Otherwise blind screen reader users won't have access to the same information as sighted people.
Alt Text: Not Always Needed
Write alt text that communicates an image's purpose without repeating page content. Focus on meaning rather than visual description.
Alt Text Decision Tree
This decision tree describes how to use the alt attribute in various situations. For some types of images, there are alternative approaches, such as using CSS background images for decorative images or web fonts instead of images of text.
Are you making these five mistakes when writing alt text?
Common mistakes that people sometimes make when writing alt text
Quick and Small Accessibility
Learn something new about accessibility with short and solid posts (less than 150 words).
Cooper Hewitt Guidelines for Image Description
Cooper Hewitt’s Guidelines for Image Description is a living document on best practice in ALT and Long Description
Creating an Inclusive eCommerce Experience: Best Practices
Discover best practices for creating an inclusive eCommerce experience. Learn how to optimise your website for accessibility and expand your reach.
How captions increase ROI and audience for media creators
High quality captions and transcripts are good for business and a necessity for millions of people. Auto captions are not the best accessibility practice. Learn firsthand from a deaf speaker in the 8-minute video.
How to make charts and graphs more accessible
In this article, we’ll start with what charts and graphs need to be considered accessible. But, just because it’s accessible, doesn’t mean it’s the best user experience for all types of users. So, we’ll also go over opportunities for creating more usable data visualisations.
How to write text descriptions (alt text) in BBC News articles
The BBC's Global Experience Language has published recent guides on how to write text descriptions (alt text). Granted, the BBC has geared these toward publication on its own sites, however, you'll find lots of information you can use in your own day to day work. The guide approaches each type of text description, which makes learning how to write them less overwhelming.
Inclusive Design Principles
These Inclusive Design Principles are about putting people first. They are intended to give anyone involved in the design and development of websites a broad approach to inclusive design
Introducing accessibility in typography
Making text accessible should be part of everyday practice. However, general typographic practices of optimising legibility and readability don’t necessarily go all the way towards making text accessible.
The case for describing race in alternative text attributes
Why it’s important in 3 examples
The importance of adding accessibility design reviews to the design process
To create accessible and inclusive experiences, you need to pay attention to accessibility throughout your design process, not just at the end.
The problem with auto-generated alternative texts for images
A closer look at some of the problems identified with auto-generated alt text for images.
The Ultimate Checklist for Accessible Data Visualisations
Are your data visualisations leaving some users behind? Learn essential design principles to create accessible charts for all.
Thoughts on skin tone and text descriptions
As a blind person and accessibility leader Léonie Watson gives her thoughts on whether skin tone should be mentioned in alt text.
Writing Alt Text for Data Visualization
You probably can’t write text that conveys the entire meaning of a chart. But, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try.