What is good alt text to use?

I wrote “Brown bear infront of forest staring.”
is that too descriptive? yours is more vague

That is sooo cool!! :nerd:

5 posts were split to a new topic: Discussion with Discobot

I put “Brown Bear Mug Shot” for mine :slight_smile:

Hmm…that does sound like a good alt text for that image! :wink:

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Now close your eyes and imagine the computer reading that to you. How good is it really? Alternate text is not a joke, and should never be treated lightly. It’s not just an appendage that can be ignored or brushed aside. The text should briefly describe the picture. We don’t take mug shots of bears, and neither might an unsighted or challenged user even know what one is.

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Oh, okay. Thanks for telling me that.

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Didn’t mean to come down so hard on you. Still, it is what it is. Give serious consideration to the semantic and usability side of web development, as you go. Study validation along the way, every step. Learn what an accessible site really is and you will go far.

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I want to ask the same question!

Alternate text is not meant to display. The user agent reads it. In assistive technologies the user may have a screen reader, and depending on their settings, the text is read to them.

HTML5 introduced the <figure /> element with its accompanying <figcaption /> element.

<figure>
  <img src="" alt="text for screen reader">
  <figcaption>Text for all users</figcaption>
</figure>
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It’s not vague. It’s what it is.

lol I called it “A wistful looking brown bear” lol

Alternate text should not be subjective, but objective. “An adult brown bear” conveys as much meaning as necessary, or possible. Our text should not be impressionistic. As little information as necessary, and nothing more.

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Can you please explain why “Photo of…” would be redundant? This requires information about how screen readers work.

My guess is that you said it is redundant because screen readers already say “Photo” or something like that when they see the tag, is that correct?

Because otherwise, I thought the poor blind person would want to know that a photo is being described!

Thank you <3

Wouldn’t let them hear you say that.

The idea of brevity and conciseness is to avoid repetition and verbosity. Don’t use ten words when five will do.

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So I would add the alt text after the text accompanying the image visible for the normal reader?

Alternate text is given in the alt attribute of an IMG tag.

<img src="%url" alt="description">

It will not be presented to the user unless assistive technology is in play.

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a head of a brown bear while he or she stand in the middle of wood

Hello. So I have read a bit on when to use figure vs. img, but it’s a clear as mud. Any thoughts?

We still use IMG in a FIGURE. The advantage is that figure comes with figcaption. We can load up a caption and keep it directly tied to the image (for the sake of search engines).

<figure>
  <img src="#" alt="">
  <figcaption>Lorem ipsum ... (attribution, etc.)</figcaption>
</figure>
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