Images in your posts sure are pretty, but did you know that the most frequent website accessibility mistake is not adding ALT Text to your images and thus not making your content truly accessible for all moms?
Read below for more information on why ALT Text is important and how you can begin incorporating it into images on your site.
About ALT Text
ALT text refers to the invisible descriptions of images that are read aloud to blind users on a screen reader. Adding ALT text allows authors to include images, but still, provide the content in an alternative text-based format.
Here is a little more information about ALT Text.
- In order to follow ADA Compliance measures, screen readers need to be able to identify what the contents of your pictures are. They will read out loud the ALT Text to tell visually impaired individuals what the image is of.
- The ALT Text is the content that pulls along with your image in Google indexing and affects your SEO.
- If no ALT text is provided, then a screen reader would only be able to say “IMAGE” or perhaps provide a file name
How to Write ALT Text for Accessibility
- Imagine that you’re reading the web page aloud over the phone to someone who needs to understand the page. This should help you decide what information or function the images have.
- The ALT Text should be the most concise description possible of the image’s purpose.
- Do NOT use the phrases “image of …” or “graphic of …” to describe the image.
- Example of Not Recommended ALT Text: Mom
- Example of Good Alt Text: Mom sitting in the kitchen with a cup of coffee
Obviously having on-brand, images adds compelling visuals to your content that are nice and pretty, however, adding ALT Text to your images is a very important measure for making your website accessible to all moms.