508 Standards: Text Alternatives For Images
Originally posted August 1, 2008
508 STANDARD – The single most important thing you can do to make a web page accessible is to include alternative text for images. When you use alternative text, you allow people who use talking browsers and screen readers to access the images.
- Use the alt attribute on every img element of your HTML code. Describe the function of the image, not the image itself.
- If the image is inside an anchor element, then the alternative text should convey the purpose of the link.
- If the image is not active, then the alternative text should convey the same information as the image.
- If the image conveys no new information, then specify that with a null alternative, (alt=”").
Remember, the person with a vision impairment must receive the same content as a sighted person. If you have an authoring system for instructors for example, you should allow the instructor to add alternative text for the content being created.