You don't necessarily need to say "image of" in your alt text for users to know it's an image. Screen readers will announce that it's an image. But it can help readers to specify if it's a hand-drawn image, Polaroid, infographic, screenshot, chart, map, diagram, or so on.

Alt text always depends on context. Imagine an icon of a computer printer. It could be used on a page of free icons. It could be on a school's computer lab site. Or it could be part of a button that allows you to print the current page. In each instance, the same icon would need different alt text.

Don't forget transcripts for video and audio. These will help blind users and low-vision users, deaf and hard-of-hearing users, people with ADHD, and people with audio-processing disorders. Transcripts also benefit search engines, people in quiet spaces, and people in a hurry.

Templates could be designed and coded according to web accessibility standards, but this won't ensure that the final product would be accessible. Content creators still need to know about key accessibility concepts, including alt text, link text, and proper headings.

Under the ADA, state and local governments, public schools, community colleges, and public universities will soon have to conform to WCAG 2.1 AA. Depending on the size of the population served, entities have until April 2026 and April 2027 to comply. www.ada.gov/resources/20...

If you use Twitch for any kind of streaming, this resource by Liz Wait can help you make your Twitch channel more accessible to people with disabilities. dev.to/auraswap/acc...

Plain language is communication that your audience or readers can understand the first time they hear or read it. The terminology you use will vary depending on the audience. Always aim to avoid jargon when possible, especially when you have a broad general audience.

If you feel like you don't know what you don't know about accessibility, it can help to follow folks who discuss assistive technology, accessibility and disability. Here's a list of people who post a lot about those. bsky.app/profile/did:...

Headings serve as landmarks for users and help them understand how different pieces of information relate to each other. For example, a section with a level 3 headings probably provides information in support of information provided in the previous level 2 heading, and so on.

The #NoMouse Challenge is a global effort to raise awareness about accessible web design. Try using your website without a mouse. Use the keyboard instead. Is it possible to access all features and operate all buttons, sliders, and other controls? nomouse.org

Ensure text is readable in data visualizations and information graphics. Small text is generally harder to read, and should be avoided where possible. Make sure the text is not obstructed by other chart elements, and has sufficient contrast against its background.

For audio-only content like podcasts, provide a transcript. For videos with audio, provide both transcripts and captions. In the transcripts and captions, include the spoken information and sounds that are important for understanding the content.

Vestibular disorders affect people's balance as well as their visual perception of their world around them. Don't make animations, sliders, videos, or rapid movement start automatically, as autoplaying elements could trigger a bad reaction in people who have vestibular disorders.

An accessibility statement lets your users know you're committed to web accessibility. These statements usually include the accessibility standard applied, such as WCAG 2.1 AA or 2.2 AA. They also include contact information in case users encounter problems. www.w3.org/WAI/planning...

Everyone who works on a website has a role to ensure the site and its content are accessible. This resource from Vox Media breaks down some accessibility tasks by job role, including content creators, designers, developers, project managers, and testers. accessibility.voxmedia.com

Some will publish podcasts but wait up to 24 hours before adding transcripts instead of publishing them together. The end goal should be to have the transcript ready at the same time as the podcast. This will require multiple teams working together toward that goal.

Beware of companies promising to make sites completely accessible, compliant, and immune from lawsuits with just a few lines of code. This just isn't possible. Disabled users have long said these tools don't actually help them, and can often make things worse.

Many struggle with writing alt text for charts and other other data visualizations. Amy Cesal's "Writing Alt Text for Data Visualization" hammers home the importance of explaining the chart type, the type of data, and the reason for the chart. medium.com/nightingale/...

Did you know each emoji has a coded description that gets read aloud by screen readers? This demo by Alexa Heinrich shows what happens when a screen reader encounters a post that uses an emoji to function as a bullet point. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSMs...

If you pair light colors (yellow text on white background) or dark colors (dark blue text on black background), users will struggle to read your content. Understanding color contrast will help you better serve all users, especially those with low vision. webaim.org/articles/con...

For screen readers to recognize headings, heading text can't just be body text or normal text that's been made to look bigger and bolder. It must be formatted as a heading. In Microsoft Word and Google Docs, this can be done in the styles box. In HTML, use the tags h1 through h6.

When creating PDFs, avoid using "Print to PDF." A screen reader user may still be able to access the text of PDFs created this way, but heading structure, alternative text, and any other tag structure will be lost. Using "Save As" or "Export" can preserve these tags.

Avoid forcing users to memorize information. For example, use field labels instead of placeholder text. Placeholder text disappears when users begin typing. This forces them to memorize placeholder text or delete information so they can see placeholders again.

You can and should add alt text to the images you upload to Facebook, too. And unlike many social media platforms, Facebook allows you to add alt text to an image after you've already shared it. www.facebook.com/help/2141244...

Sighted users often use bold or large fonts to create the appearance of headings in documents. People using screen readers have no way of understanding these visual cues. Use heading styles from the styles menu to correctly format headings.

The Game Accessibility Guidelines have been put together by game studios, specialists and academics. While they are not an official set of standards or documents, they are a collection of tips and techniques to help developers make games more inclusive. gameaccessibilityguidelines.com

Make sure that interactive elements that can be accessed by using a mouse, pen, trackpad or touch are at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels. This helps people with low vision and/or limited motor control select the intended element without accidentally selecting nearby elements.

People have personal preferences on what they consider acceptable length for alt text, but there's no definitive character limit or formula for how long alt text should be. That said, aim to be as detailed as needed but as succinct as possible. Go for both accuracy and precision.

Consider your site content that is routinely updated, like weather maps, Covid charts, or stock graphs. Screen reader users encounter maps and charts where the image has been updated but the alt text hasn't. This can lead to confusion. Always update alt text when updating images.

Alexa Heinrich's Accessible Social is a free resource for digital marketers, communication professionals, content creators, everyday social media users, and anyone who wants to learn how to make their content accessible for people with disabilities. www.accessible-social.com

If a word has some letters replaced with asterisks, this could confuse people. This includes people with cognitive and reading disabilities, and those learning the language. Screen reader users won't necessarily know what the word is meant to be, as it could sound like gibberish.

Screen reader users can navigate from heading to heading. If HTML headings are used correctly, this allows users to get a basic outline of content and find the information they’re looking for. The highest heading level is <h1> and <h6> is the lowest. developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/W...

Kasey Bonifacio's 13 Days of Accessibility is a great way to dig into the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which are international standards used to measure accessibility. Kasey's resource makes WCAG more digestible. a11ycalendar.kaseybon.com

Some people replace the word "season" with "szn" or the word "please" with "plz." Not all sighted users will know what those spellings are supposed to mean, and many screen reader users won't, either. Many screen readers will read "szn" as S-Z-N and "plz" as P-L-Z.

Color contrast affects readability on the web and in print. It is especially important for users who are low vision or for users who are colorblind. Good color contrast means all users can see your content no matter the device they’re using or the lighting of their surroundings.

Sheri Byrne-Haber's "Giving A Damn About Accessibility" has great tips on how to deal with people who challenge or dismiss the need for accessibility. uxdesign.cc/giving-a-dam...

Like most other disciplines, accessibility takes practice, time, and patience. No one starts a new endeavor and is instantly excellent at it with nothing to learn. If your beginning goal is absolute perfection, you'll burn out. You'll find excuses to not try. Get started and try.

If you're looking to hire people with accessibility knowledge and experience, the Accessibility Skills Hiring Toolkit created by Teach Access can help you. The toolkit provides language to use when writing job ads, and questions to ask when interviewing. teachaccess.github.io/accessibilit...

Get in the habit of bringing up accessibility at meetings, in stand-ups, and in demos. Bring up things you've done to address accessibility. Likewise, don't be afraid to ask, "Have we tested this on a keyboard?" or "What's the experience like on a screen reader?"

Don’t stuff your alt text with keywords without context. If your alt text is just a collection of keywords, it will just sound like a gibberish string. It won’t describe what’s actually in the image, and won't help a blind user get a context or content of the image.

Audio descriptions are necessary for making videos accessible. They narrate the crucial visual elements that would be necessary for understanding the plot without the ability to see the screen. They describe non-verbal cues like gestures, facial expressions, or eye contact.

Don't forget transcripts for video and audio. Transcripts help many, including blind users and low-vision users, deaf and hard-of-hearing users, people with ADHD, and people with audio-processing disorders. Transcripts also benefit search engines, people in quiet spaces, and people in a hurry.

Sharing a meme on social media? Don't forget to include alt text! This resource from @veron4ica.com will help you. veroniiiica.com/2018/11/29/h...

People who want to make the web accessible need to understand the many different ways that people with disabilities use the web. This W3C resource offers a good introduction to how disabled people navigate the web, and barriers they commonly encounter. www.w3.org/WAI/people-u...

If you’re a design engineer, a designer, a front-end developer, a JavaScript developer, or a back-end developer, @sarasoueidan.com's "Practical Accessibility" can give you the essential knowledge you need to gain a deep understanding of accessibility. practical-accessibility.today

ASCII art is illustrations made out of letters, numbers, punctuation, and other characters from the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII). Folks using screen readers or text-to-speech will hear gibberish.

Alt text always depends on context. Imagine an icon of a computer printer. It could be used on a page of free icons. It could be on a school's computer lab site. Or it could be part of a button that allows you to print the current page. In each instance, the same icon would need different alt text.

For those in America who will be in rooms with TVs tuned to football during this long Thanksgiving weekend, either by choice or not, you have a great chance to explain accessibility concepts. No, this is not a joke. Yes, this is based on past experiences. Yes, it has totally worked! Thread 🧵

Vestibular disorders affect people's balance as well as their visual perception of their world around them. Don't make animations, sliders, videos, or rapid movement start automatically, as autoplaying elements could trigger a bad reaction in people who have vestibular disorders.

The hashtag #accessibility allows you to find lots of accessibility-related resources. To find accessibility resources in Spanish, use the hashtag #accesibilidad. The hashtag #accessibilité helps you find resources in French.