If you use a screen reader you might not want to skip alt text even when you think it is no longer contextually important just in case there is something there. Adding anything into alt text beyond a contextually correct and factual description reduces accessibility.
It also happens a lot and wastes a lot of time for folks using screen readers. The worst culprits are when brands add SEO terms into alt text on decorative images. It’s disrespectful at the very least but hugely inaccessible in some scenarios where it can cause confusion and disorientation.
It’s a form of misuse of alt text that should be avoided at all costs. Whilst this example is pretty innocent and could be considered a nice “Easter egg” of content it would be better placed in the original post text to not misuse the alt text field.
hmm very interesting. I had been curious about the alt text vs. inline image description issue the other day, so I emailed veronica lewis, another accessibility expert… (1/2)
…and she said “If anyone can read the alt attributes by selecting an alt icon or similar, then I would say it is fine to include the longer image description as alt text. If alt text is invisible to non-screen reader users, I would link it as a reply.”
Sure for a “longer image description” you can do this, the issue is that in this case and in many other cases the additional information isn’t a description of the image. Long descriptions for alt text are to allow for more complex or content rich image descriptions.
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