Learn about this crucial aspect of web design that ensures optimal readability and accessibility for all users (including those using screenreaders), and enhances your SEO!
Why is alt text important?
- Accessibility for Screen Readers:
Alt text provides a text alternative to non-text content such as images. This is crucial for users who rely on screen readers to understand and navigate web content. - Inclusive User Experience:
Alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those who have difficulty interpreting images can still access and comprehend the information presented on a website, promoting a more inclusive user experience. - Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
Alt text serves as a description of images, and search engines use this information to understand the content of a webpage. Including descriptive alt text not only improves accessibility but also enhances SEO, making content more discoverable and relevant. - Legal Compliance:
The Americans with Disabilities Act - ADA, requires accessible web content. Providing alt text is a fundamental aspect of meeting these legal standards and ensuring that websites are accessible to all users.
Best Practices:
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Include Flyer, Chart, Graph, Poster, or Informational Graphic information both in graphic and in text.
If you include graphics or complex images on your website, screenreaders would not be able to effectively relay this information unless it is also in text. To make sure your page is accessible to all users, ensure that any informational graphics or flyers have the same content written out in text on the page near the image and that the alt text describes where on the page this information is located. While flyers are great, flyers and a written blurb of that same information is best!For an example on how to do this, follow the instructions below.
- Make sure all images have alt-text that is accurate and sufficient enough that all relevant information can be relayed by screenreaders.
While our AI Alt text generator should automatically add alternative text to most of your images, if it misses the mark on the description, it is quite easy to add.For a step-by-step guide please follow the instructions below.