Images are an essential part of any website. They make pages more visually appealing and can help convey important information. However, not everyone can see images, particularly people who are blind or have low vision. For these users, screen readers are used to describe the content on the page, including images. This is where alt tags come into play.
Alt tags, or alternative text, are short text descriptions added to images in the HTML code of a website. Their main purpose is to describe the content and function of an image to users who cannot see it. Using alt tags correctly ensures that your website is accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities.
To decide what to write in an alt tag, you can use the decision tree provided by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Start by thinking about the role of the image on the page. If the image is purely decorative, such as a background pattern or a separator, you can use an empty alt attribute (alt=””). This way, screen readers will skip over the image, avoiding unnecessary details that might confuse users.
For images that carry important information, your alt tag should describe the content of the image clearly and concisely. For example, if the image is a chart or graph, the alt tag should summarise the data it represents. If the image is used as a link, the alt tag should describe where the link leads or what action it will perform.
In addition to improving accessibility, using alt tags correctly also boosts your website’s search engine optimisation (SEO). Search engines use alt text to understand the content of images, which can help improve your site’s ranking in search results.
In conclusion, alt tags are a simple but powerful tool that ensures your website is accessible and inclusive, while also enhancing its online visibility.