Make Images Accessible
Accessible images are important for people who use screen readers to access websites, apps, and other software. Screen readers are an essential piece of software that read out the content of a website for blind or visually impaired users. For images, we make it accessible by using alt text, or alternative text, so that screen readers will read out the information in place of the image. In this shot, we break down the difference between images that require and don’t require alt text.
Informative images require alt text because they graphically represent concepts and information, whereas decorative images do not because they only add visual decoration to the page. In this example, the logo is informative because if you take it away, users will not know which site they are on. However, if you take away the hero banner and the pumpkin patch image, users are still able to understand the context relative to the remaining text that contains the information that they need.
