POV: It’s 2023 and most images have bad alt text. Why is that? We know alt text is required to reach any level of WCAG conformance and it’s one of the top 5 most common errors in digital accessibility lawsuits and demand letters. Take a look at the alt text behind the scenes of your favorite brand or business. Turn on a mobile screen reader and scroll your social media feed. What you will most likely find is that there are still a shocking number of business with alt text that’s suspiciously formulaic, overly basic, or completely wrong. So what’s the hold up? What’s behind all of this bad alt text? The reality is that many organizations are using some form of automation to manage alt text on their websites. This session will explore the most popular approaches to taking alt text shortcuts today and whether any of those shortcuts are actually producing “good” alt text AKA meaningful alt text that satisfies WCAG text alternative requirements.
Session Video
Speaker
