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Posted by Scott Peake
Scott Peake
17,052 Points

Accessibility: Use of "alt" tags on images. What level of detail should be included for thumbnail images?

Spending a lot of time thinking about, and applying, greater levels of "accessibility" with my pages. My pages tend to have a lot of images, and I use a lot of thumbnails (images reduced in size or density to speed up load times). As with the full-size images, I include "alt" tags for the thumbnails.

My question is... What level of detail should I be applying to the alt tags for the main images and their thumbnails? Should I be indicating in the "alt" that it's a thumbnail? Since my thumbnails are "links" to the actual picture, should I include that? How much should they "lead" the user experience?

My fear is repetition, redundancy, or overload of information.

Greg Adams
Greg Adams
13,268 Points

I'm sure it will vary by the project, but this is a site I've used before:

http://accessibility.psu.edu/images/imageshtml/

Also, note that Google image search uses alt tags to find images, so for some good examples check images you get online for how they did ALT tags, this will help you develop your convention going forward.

Best, Greg

1 Answer

Greg Adams
Greg Adams
13,268 Points
Greg Adams
Greg Adams
13,268 Points

I'm sure it will vary by the project, but this is a site I've used before:

http://accessibility.psu.edu/images/imageshtml/

Also, note that Google image search uses alt tags to find images, so for some good examples check images you get online for how they did ALT tags, this will help you develop your convention going forward.

Best, Greg

Scott Peake
Scott Peake
17,052 Points

Thanks for the link. It does make some interesting, and logical, points about accessibility. They mention that if it IS a link to something else (like the original image), that information should be included in the alt. I just need to make sure it doesn't get too wordy.

I think what I'd really like to do is actually try some of my pages using a web reader. I don't want the alts to be "formulaic" or overly wordy, but I think "hearing" them for myself might keep it in perspective... kind of like testing for contrast and such for visual accessibility.

Thanks again!