Accessibility Issues

Examples of common accessibility issues

Image lacks alt text

The "alt" attribute, or alt text, is a short (max. 150 characters) text label that displays when you hover your mouse over an image. It allows the screenreader software used by visually impaired users to provide a voice-over description of the image. It should describe the significant content of the image, conveying only the essentials of what it is meant to illustrate – for example, if an article about Bill and Jane running in the 2003 London marathon includes a photo of them doing so, the necessary alt text could be "Bill and Jane in 2003 London marathon" – but there is no need for extra detail describing the other people visible in the photograph or background information such as who won the race that year.

Solution: Insert alt text in the image's Alt Text box.

See also: Fixing an accessibility issue in an image.

Table lacks summary

The summary is a short piece of text, similar to alt text, that describes the purpose and content of the table. For example, a graph comparing the variation in the price of a stock with the trading symbol XYZ during 2005 with the Dow Jones stock market index could have a summary reading: "2-line graph comparing price of stock XYZ with Dow Jones index during 2005."

Solution: Insert a summary in the table's Summary text box.

See also: Fixing accessibility issues in tables.

For a detailed list of accessibility issues, see Tidy warnings